The Fallen Jedi: Dionant Janan
by PipeLad
Summary: This is the story of the fallen Jedi Dionant Janan. Join him and the 93rd Clone Trooper Legion as they leave the Republic forces, and fight their way across the galaxy as free men, owing their allegiance only to whom they choose. Expect some blood and gore, and possibly a long term pairing later down the road. No slash. OC main character. M rating, that will not change.
1. Chapter 1

Welcome to my newest story, _The Fallen Jedi_. I don't know if any other stories of the same name exist, but some might as it does seem like a rather generic name. This story will be following the Fallen Jedi Dionant Janan, a human ex-jedi, and his group of loyal clones. They will face hardships and struggle, but they will also be rewarded with times of great joy and success. I'm not really sure where this story is heading, but I would love feedback and suggestions. I've never done a star wars story before, and the EU is so massive it's more than a bit intimidating to jump into.

Let me know what y'all think of this story with a comment or review, and shoot me a PM if you have any questions about the story. I hope y'all like it.

I'm not sure about any long term pairings. The main character is an OC.

"_Supreme Chancellor, I must apologize for calling on such short notice."_

"_Not a problem, Prime Minister Su. I assume you have news of the clones."_

_The tall Kaminoan nodded, his black eyes staring directly at the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic through a pale blue holo-feed. Their holo-meeting had been a surprise for the Chancellor, and he did not particularly like surprises that might alter his plans._

"_It is about a batch of clones we recently put out. When reviewing their genetic template and genomes we discovered slight abnormalities that could potentially lead to insurrection or disobedience when given direct commands or orders. We have scoured the genomes and genetic templates of all clones deployed, and it seems that only this one group is affected by this defect."_

_The Chancellor sighed in relief, but the sigh came across as a sign of upset or anger to the tall Kaminoan at the other end of the holo-feed._

"_Which group of clones, Prime Minister?"_

"_The group titled the 93rd Legion is the only group with the defect. I personally recommend that they either be disposed of or sent back here to Kamino immediately."_

"_Thank you for making me aware of this. Be sure to come forward if any more defects are unveiled."_

_Cutting the feed to the Kaminoan Prime Minister the Supreme Chancellor began typing, attempting to open up more holo-feeds._

_A tall and sinister figure appeared on the small projector, and the figure spoke in a deep and rough voice._

"_Yes, Master?"_

"_Go to the Tharin System on the Outer Rim. Once there you are to incite war and rebellion on a large scale. I do not care what it costs, just get it done. Leave immediately once you are sure the conflict is large enough to bring the Systems Senators back as diplomats."_

"_It will be done." And with a final bow the transmission was cut._

_Sitting back in the comfortable chair behind his desk, and swivelling it to gaze out of his grand window the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic paused a moment to think. He had planted the seed of rebellion and warfare in the Tharin System. It would only be a matter of time before the Jedi Council would convene and send some poor Jedi Knight with a contingent of clones and diplomats to secure peace in the System. All that remained was to make sure that the clones were the 93rd Legion and to orchestrate their demise._

_While the Tharin System itself was not of very much importance, and would therefore be low on the priority list of the Jedi Council who now found themselves embroiled in a fresh war, the continued stability of it's neighbouring Systems could be jeopardized if the Tharin System fell. This would mean that the Jedi Council would dispatch a Jedi Knight, one that they would not need in the immediate future, along with a clone bodyguard group and a group of diplomats to secure peace in the System once more._

_Turning away from the frantic and bustling scene that was outside of his window Chancellor Palpatine grabbed the holo-transmitter once more, and pressed a few buttons. A pale image of the head of the Separatist nation appeared, Count Dooku._

_Count Dooku bowed his greying head, and stood tall in the small holographic image._

"_Master, what would you have me do?" Dooku was used to getting odd transmissions at odd hours from his master, but had grown to accept it. _

"_Have General Grevious take his new battleship and prowl the Tharin System. His target will be a group of clones and a group of diplomats, all traveling together."_

_Count Dooku nodded and spoke again, "It will be an excellent test of his new weapon."_

"_Yes." And with the final word Darth Sidious cut the transmission, satisfied that his underlings would perform their jobs adequately. All that was left now was to ensure that the 93rd Legion were dispatched to the Tharin System. This would prove a trickier task than simply orchestrating discontent in the System itself and laying a trap there as well._

_Once more activating the holo-transmitter and preparing to speak, the Supreme Chancellor had an idea to make sure that the 93rd Legion would walk directly into the waiting trap that would soon be set for them. It would take a few credits, and a bit of Dark Side persuasion, but it would ultimately be successful. _

**2 weeks later, Jedi Temple on Coruscant**

Blaster bolts bounced in every direction as the young Jedi Knight Dionant Janan practiced his lightsaber techniques. He was excited, and was brimming with energy. He was a human, tall with dark brown hair, but with bluish green eyes that seemed to shimmer and change in the light, sometimes appearing to be a steely grey color and other times appearing to be a shimmering aquamarine.

He had only recently been Knighted a few weeks ago, almost directly after proving himself at the Battle of Geonosis. It still hurt him to think about that Battle, as he had lost many friends there that day, but he used the emotions he felt when he thought of Geonosis. He would push his anger and grief and sadness into his technique and skill with the lightsaber, which he knew was technically against the Jedi Code, but he could see little harm in it. He knew that the Council was reluctant to make him a full fledged Jedi Knight due to his disagreements and sometimes dismissal of the more strict teachings of the Jedi Code. But when his Master had fallen at Geonosis, killed after taking dozens of Geonosians and Battle Droids with him, Dionant had been left without a Master, and at the end of his training. He had been within a few months of completing his training with his master, and the Jedi Council had decided to go ahead and Knight him. It would be a waste of resources to reassign him to a new Master for only a few months, especially when Dionant was still in grieving for his old Master.

Twirling his yellow bladed light saber as he deflected another bolt Dionant ducked low, sensing an incoming attack from the corner of the room. Another combat training droid had joined in, as per the training program Dionant had selected. Over the course of the training exercise more and more combat droids would be added, all shooting blaster bolts that would singe clothing and leave slight burns, but nothing more. The droids would keep coming, one more every few minutes, until the trainee was overwhelmed and ceased the exercise. Dionant was attempting to best his record of nine droids at once, and it seemed that he might be able to this time. Seven droids were currently hovering around him, and he could only sense them with the Force. The room was pitch black and Dionant wore a blindfold to ensure he could not see the droids.

"_It's not fair."_ Dionant thought as he ducked and dodged blaster bolts, deflecting some back to the droids firing them at him. "_Why can't I use my emotions? I feel they make me stronger. Isn't being strong what being a Jedi is about?"_

The training session was going well, and seemed easy enough that Dionant allowed his mind to wander back to the sandy killing fields of Geonosis. His master, and now Dionant himself, had been placed in command of the 93rd Legion. The 93rd Legion, from what Dionant could tell so far after only serving with them in one battle, were a loyal group of clones, as all clones were. They were competent and brave, and they had stood firm with Dionant after his Master had fallen. Dionant had become somewhat attached to them, as Captain Dagger, who went by Captain Dag, of the 93rd Legion had been the one trooper brave enough to approach their new commander after their former commander's death, and calm him down. Dionant had been nearly lost in a rage, and had butchered a dozen Geonosian's before being calmed down and had some sense talked into him by the Captain.

That was another thing that Dionant did not understand about the Jedi Order and the Jedi Code. They were not allowed to form any meaningful or lasting attachments. This might prove a problem for the young Jedi Knight, who could already feel a sense of camaraderie and fraternity growing between himself and the clones he was now commander of.

A blaster bolt slipped past Dionant's defenses, and slammed home into his shoulder. Giving the droid a slightly harder than necessary Force Push, Dionant sent the droid careening off into a wall, smashing into small bits. Dionant kept up with dodging and deflecting bolts as he gauged his shoulder, determining just a small burn to be there. Two more droids came floating down from above, the Force giving Dionant a subtle warning before a blaster bolt came down nearly directly on top of his head, or would have had he not deflected it. With the one droid destroyed and two more entering the fray Dionant was now facing off against eight droids during the training exercise.

Suddenly Dionant felt a strong presence in the Force watching him, a steady and calm presence that was powerful, but serene at the moment. Dionant immediately recognized the presence as belonging to Jedi Master Mace Windu, of the Jedi Council.

Dodging blaster bolts until he waved his arm Dionant used the Force to remotely shut off the training exercise, and also to turn on the lights of the training room. Deactivating his golden colored lightsaber and clipping it to his belt Dionant used the Force to clean up the remaining droids and the bits of the smashed droid on the floor. Removing his blindfold, and exiting the room Dionant made his way to the next door observation room that allowed observers to look into the training room. While it had been pitch black dark inside the room Dionant held no doubts that Master Windu had been able to follow every movement and every droid through the Force. That sort of task was simply child's play for a Master of the Jedi Council.

Bowing deeply as he entered the room, Dionant now wished that he had taken a moment to switch his sweaty and worn robes for a fresher set, but figured that nothing could be done about it now.

"Master Windu, what may I do for you today?"

"Jedi Dionant, the Council will be meeting in two hours time, and we request your presence there. We have a mission for you and your clones." The deep and calm baritone of the Master Jedi conveyed his message to Dionant, and the Master Jedi strode confidently out of the observation room.

That message left Dionant wondering what his mission could be, and why he was chosen for it. He had above average light saber skills, and was also an above average pilot. His Force manipulation skills were somewhat lacking, but Dionant was working hard to develop them more. He was a Jedi Knight after all, a stalwart bulwark of power that stood against the dark, and that was exactly how he saw himself.

**Mace Windu**

As Master Windu left the observation room, leaving Jedi Knight Dionant behind, he pondered the question of what to do with the Jedi. The newly appointed Jedi Knight semi-regularly went against the teachings of the Jedi Code and the Jedi Council. This had not been too bad when his Master had been alive, his Master had kept him in check and had been teaching Dionant the Jedi Way. But with his Master now dead, and the Jedi Order in need of more full fledged Knights and Masters, it had been decided that the Council could take the risk and have Dionant Knighted.

It could turn out to be a good decision, as Qui-Gon Jinn had regularly gone against the Council when he had been alive, but Dionant seemed _different_ than Qui-Gon.

Anyway, the Jedi Council had a rather simple mission that needed a Jedi Knight, and Dionant was in the Temple at the time. He and his clones would be soon dispatched to the Tharin System, escorting a group of diplomats that would be on a peacekeeping mission to return the System to stability. The Jedi Council had convened earlier that day, and it had been decided that the Tharin System must not fall to internal violence, as a disruption of the delicate status quo that existed in the Outer Rim was the last thing that the Jedi Order or the Galactic Republic needed to deal with currently.

They both had enough on their plates, so to speak, with the Clone Wars having just begun about a month before with the Battle of Geonosis. Master Windu retired to his private chambers until the time for the Council to reconvene with Jedi Dionant, and meditated on the Force. Many things were being hidden from the Jedi, and many more things were shrouded in mystery and the Dark Side. It certainly seemed as if the Jedi Order and the Galactic Republic were both heading into troubling times.

**Jedi Council Chambers**

"Have a mission for you and your clones, we do." The old Master Jedi Yoda spoke, addressing Dionant, who stood at the center of the chamber, in the middle of the twelve chairs. Not all, indeed few of the chairs actually contained their Master, but a few more had holographic projections of their masters, who all sat quietly and listened to Yoda speak. They all knew what he was going to be saying, after all.

"Yes, Master. What is it this mission?" Dionant spoke with slight reverence and much deference in his voice. He respected the Council for their power, if not their rules and dogma. Dionant was excited. This would be his first mission as a Jedi Knight, his first mission without his Master at his side. It pained him to think of his old Master, but Dionant was too excited with barely held in check enthusiasm that he would be able to show his power, skill, and strength to the Jedi Council on this mission.

Master Windu spoke up, "You and your clones will be safe guarding a diplomatic mission to the Outer Rim. The Tharin System specifically."

Dionant almost seemed to visibly deflate at this news. He was not being chosen for something daring or brave, as he had hoped. This was disappointing news, but he perked up as the thought of the possibilities. "_The Outer Rim is full of pirates, thieves, and smugglers. There's a good chance we'll see some action!"_ The thought was heavily censored, even as it came to him, as it would not do for the Jedi Council to pick up at all that Dionant was excited too much at the prospect of fighting. Jedi were supposed to be humble peacekeepers after all.

Realizing that he had not yet responded to Master Windu, Dionant spoke, "Yes, Master. When do we depart?"

"Tomorrow at 0600 hours standard. That is not all, Young Knight. You will be entrusted with a prototype ship, a new class of Starfighters meant specifically for Jedi. The latest model, the Eta-2 Actis Light Interceptor will be yours for this mission. This is a prototype, but is the functioning production model as of right now. Depending on your performance and review the model will see action as a Jedi Starfighter."

This had Dionant _very_ excited. He had gone from a state of slightly resigned disappointment to optimism. It was not everyday that a newly Knighted Jedi was given such an opportunity as to field test a prototype starfighter.

One of the other Jedi Master's on the Council spoke to Dionant, "The Council recognizes your skill as a pilot. You will meet with your clones and your ship tomorrow morning at 0430 hours standard for a briefing at Republic Navy Docking Bay 7."

"Yes, Master." Dionant nodded and bowed to the Master's, and stood still, awaiting his dismissal.

"That is all, Knight. You are to report back regularly during the mission. It should not be a long mission, two to three weeks at most. I trust that we do not have to outline for you the importance of the continued stability of the Outer Rim Systems." Master Windu spoke, dismissing Dionant with a respectful nod.

As Dionant left the Jedi Council chambers he could hear the soft buzz of conversation pick up behind him, and also the slight sound of holographic projections fizzing out of existence.

**Meditation Room, Jedi Temple, Coruscant.**

Dionant sat cross legged, inhaling deep breaths as he meditated. He had been unable to sleep that night at all, and instead had left his personal quarters and found an empty meditation room.

All night Dionant had been unable to escape a buzzing sensation, and Dionant was just now realizing what it was. It was his own pride, and it refused to go away. The Jedi Council was entrusting him with a valuable prototype model of a starfighter designed specifically for Jedi, and they were doing this because they knew of his skill as a Jedi and as a pilot. Dionant suspected that they could sense it through the Force.

Chest swelling as he realized this Dionant remembered the teachings of his old Master and of the Jedi Code in humility. Trying to chastise and rebuke himself for his over pridefulness and prideful feelings Dionant found it impossible. He was simply too happy and satisfied with himself that the Council had specifically picked out _him_ for the job.

"_They finally recognized what an asset I can be! This is great!... Wait."_ Taking a deep breath Dionant continued his meditation. "_I need to calm down. It's not likely that the Jedi Council picked me because they know me. They probably just saw my name on the Temple roster and assigned me the mission. They never seemed to like me much."_

"_But maybe that's changing! Maybe they recognize my strength!"_ Dionant seemed to be having a conversation between himself, as he regularly did when he meditated. It helped him work through inner issues and conflicts. It usually was quite beneficial.

"_Why would it change now? Just because I'm a Jedi Knight? The only reason they Knighted me now is because they need more Knights and Master died at Geonosis. I wouldn't have been Knighted for months at least, maybe even another year."_

"_Being a Knight means nothing! You've seen it for yourself, being a Jedi means nothing! The whole Order is blind. You know it's true. Master told you that the Jedi Council didn't even know of this clone army a month ago. And now we're using it in a full scale Galactic civil war. How could the Jedi Council miss their own army being created, and then be so willing to accept it without question?"_

"_We need the clones and the clone army. Without them we'd all be wiped out by the Separatists."_

Dionant's wrist chronometer beeped it's alarm, set for 0400 hours standard time. In half an hour he was expected at Republic Docking Bay 7 to undergo a briefing and a quick tutorial in piloting the prototype starfighter. Banishing all thoughts of the mock conversation/ argument that he had been having with himself Dionant set out. He had prepared a small rucksack for his journey, and had packed it with his meager belongings. He knew that Jedi were not strictly supposed to have material possessions, but he had accumulated a small collection. In his small collection were a few personal data pads, a small crystal that he carried for good luck, and a spare set of robes or two.

Leaving the Jedi Temple and boarding a Republic speeder Dionant politely asked to be taken to Navy Docking Bay 7, on important business. He was there within minutes, and was glad to see the troopers of the 93rd Legion already gathering. They were there a few hours early, but Dionant was sure that they had their own briefing to go through.

Dionant looked out across the deck of the bustling space port, and saw a man in a grey uniform with the correct lapel pins and rank designations. As Dionant drew closer he could see that it was indeed Admiral Jerjerrod, the commanding Admiral for the Coruscant fleet of the Galactic Navy. It appeared that he would be giving Dionant his briefing personally, a fact which denoted the importance and significance of this mission. His presence made Dionant's pride once again swell, only being calmed by repeating Jedi mantras of humility until Dionant drew close enough to greet Admiral Jerjerrod.

"Greetings, Jedi Knight. I assume you wish to see the prototype."

"Yes, please, sir." While Dionant was a Jedi Knight, he was still very young and would have to show deference and respect to his elders. "_He's not a Jedi Master. You are better than him. You do not have to show him any respect." _

"_The Jedi are humble Peacekeepers! I will fulfill my duty as such!"_

Walking a short distance, and entering a good sized storage container that seemed very much out of place, the Admiral turned a light switch on, and revealed the star fighter.

"The eta-2 Actis Class Light Interceptor. Designed for use by Jedi's when a nimble and speedy starfighter is necessary. It is just under 5 and a half meters long, and has a just over 4 meter wingspan. It is propelled with twin ion engines, and is armed with two laser cannons as it's primary weapons with two light ion cannons as secondary weapons. It comes with an astromech unit, R4. It has supplies to last 2 days, with room for 60 kilograms more supplies or cargo. It is outfitted with a hyperdrive. It has no shielding, so it is best to take out your foes quickly, or dodge them using your superior speed."

Dionant nodded to all of this, taking in the information as he looked over the starfighter itself. It was painted a sleek black, all except the cockpit in the center, where the two wings joined. The barrels of the two laser cannons stuck out just parallel with the tips of the wings, and Dionant was sure that it was a formidable fighter.

"Keep in mind, Jedi Janan, that this is one of very few of these in existence. This is the final model of the craft, and pending on your review and it's performance in this mission and in several others it will be produced on a larger scale. You are to bring it back in one piece after your mission is completed. If you would follow me I will take you to the 93rd Legion, they should be done with their briefing by now."

Exiting the storage container that concealed the starfighter the two men walked towards where Dionant could see a smaller Republic light cruiser had landed, an Arquitens Class cruiser. It was similar to the massive Venator- Class Star Destroyers, but was much smaller and had a much lighter armament. Beside the Arquitens Class Cruiser was a CSS-1 Corellian Star Shuttle. The cruiser would be carrying the clone contingent made up of the surviving clones of the 93rd Legion, who had taken many casualties during the fighting on Geonosis, and the Star Shuttle would be carrying the fifty or so diplomats that Dionant and the clones would be escorting to the Tharin System.

The Admiral and Dionant went up and greeted the Clone Captain, Captain Dagger who preferred to be called 'Dag', and the lead diplomat for the mission, a Duro male named Kupt. A small Senate Committee had appointed him and several other diplomats, about fifty in total, to bring an end to the escalating tensions in the Tharin System.

"Nice to have you with us, gentleman." Admiral Jerjerrod spoke, addressing the whole group. "As you know," He nodded towards the Captain and the Jedi Knight, "You will be bringing the prototype starfighter along. The container it is in will be maglocked to the hull of the cruiser, and you will proceed to your destination. Once you leave hyperspace you are to detach the container and test the star fighter. Two ARC starfighters, the remnants of the 93rd Legion pilot corps, will be accompanying you. Their ships will also be maglocked to the hull in order to save fuel during the journey. The container and ships will not be affected nor will they affect the cruiser during hyperspace travel."

It was now 0500 hours according to Dionant's wrist chronometer, which meant that they had about an hour before departure. The Admiral left them with a parting suggestion, "I suggest you board! Departure is in one hour, and if the schedule is not met the next departure slot available is in two days."

The clones, assisted by several porters and droids, began loading up supplies onto the cruiser. The mission would only take a couple of weeks, but it would be best to be prepared, besides the cruiser was due for resupply before it's redeployment after this mission.

Within half an hour all of the diplomats were boarded onto their Star Shuttle, after Dionant and Kupt having a brief meeting with each other. The clones were all on board the cruiser, and the two ARC starfighters and the shipping container with the Jedi starfighter inside of it had all been securely maglocked to the hull of the cruiser. Dionant was on board the cruiser, and would be until they left hyperspace travel.

**Arquitens Class Light Cruiser, Outer Rim**

"Departing from hyperspace travel! Hold on!"

The light cruiser, and the Star Shuttle beside it, came out of hyperspace travel deep inside the Outer Rim. They had had no trouble reaching their target, and they were now about six hours travel from the border of the Tharin System. It was here that the two ARC starfighters would be deployed, and also the Jedi starfighter. It had been decided that the easiest method of deploying these would be to have the ARC pilots and co-pilots already in their starfighters when they left Coruscant, and the same with Dionant in his prototype starfighter.

Receiving the all clear signal over the comm channel Dionant flicked focused the Force, and pushed the door of the shipping container open, and fired his engines slightly. Leaving behind a good sized scorch mark as he throttled out of the shipping container Dionant became acclimatized to using the Jedi starfighter controls. As a skilled pilot this was easy, the controls were simple and not too numerous.

The ARC starfighters deployed, and hailed Dionant on the comm.

"Black leader this is ARC 1. Come in Black leader."

Black leader had been Dionant's designated call signal, as his Jedi starfighter was colored black and he was the leader of this mission.

"ARC 1, this is Black leader. Proceed with mission. Guard the Star Shuttle."

"Roger that, sir."

A new voice, identical to the voice of ARC 1 crackled over the comm, "Black leader, this is _Justice_." That was the light cruiser, the _Justice_ chiming in. "How is the flight?"

"Flight is fine. Condition of ship is good, all readings appear normal. Proceeding with mission. Over"

Dionant took his blacked out prototype starfighter ahead of the rest of the group, and was scouting as he tested the machine's limits and capabilities. It was a crisp and functional ship, if a bit small, but it made up for that in maneuverability. It was a good ship, in Dionant's opinion, and he would really enjoy to have one of his own. "_But you can't have one of your own. You're a Jedi Knight now. No owning anything!"_

All was fine for over two hours, as Dionant did his scouting and the group made their way through space.

Suddenly the comm sprang to life, even as Dionant's astromech droid and warning systems began to blare warnings to him.

"Black Leader! Get back to _Justice_! Massive battleship approaching! Size yet undetermined! Get back to the _Justice!"_

"I read you loud and clear, _Justice._ I'm coming back now." But by then it was too late.

A truly massive battleship, bearing Separatist colors, was approaching. It kept going on and going on, never stopping. It grew until it was all that Dionant could see in the fighter's cockpit viewport. On the side was a massive circle, hundreds and hundreds of meters in length, crackling with energy as it powered up.

"Black Leader, approaching ship's signal is read as the _Malevolence_. No ship of that name nor that size has ever been seen under Separatist control. It must be an experimental ship."

"I'm almost back to the ship. I'll be there in 2 minutes." But Dionant would not make it to the ship in time, and even if he had it would have been an ordeal to re-dock inside the shipping container.

A massive ring of crackling energy shot out of the circle on the side of the ship, and quickly crossed the distance between Dionant's group and the humongous battleship. It washed over both of the ships and the three starfighters, engulfing them in shrieking power.

Immediately the Star Shuttle went dark, as did one of the ARC starfighters. The other remained flying with about half power, but shuddered and bucked violently. The same was true for Dionant's own starfighter. The astromech droid had very nearly been scrambled completely, but was beeping frantically coordinates of a nearby moon that the group could crash land on. The light cruiser was in similar shape, as half of it's engines had disengaged, and it struggled along.

The massive battleship shot out of real space and into hyperspace, leaving the Republic forces behind to die in the icy grips of space itself. But it was not to happen that day, as Dionant managed to send out a broken and fragmented signal on the comm.

"All units to Coordinates 453985.2, 989253.5. All units rendezvous at those coordinates!"

The transmission went out, stuttering and halting, but eventually Dionant received back confirmation from the remaining ARC starfighter and the light cruiser. All scans indicated that no one was left alive in either the Star Shuttle or the other ARC starfighter. Dionant could sense from the Force that there were no survivors, and could even sense a few casualties aboard the _Justice._

Relaying this to the clones, and all the time guiding his prototype fighter to the moon below them, a small moon covered in rather thick forests, with some mountains. The scans indicated that it had a breathable atmosphere, and would not be too difficult to land on.

The three remaining starcraft hurtled and plummeted their way through the moon's atmosphere, all in a tight cluster. The three craft came down, hitting the surface of the moon harshly all within a kilometer of each other.

Well that was the first chapter. I enjoyed writing it, and I hope y'all enjoy reading it. This is my first star wars fic, but I have five Harry Potter fics. Y'all should check them out sometime, and give them a read. Let me know what you think about this story, and leave a comment. Hope y'all liked it.


	2. Chapter 2

This is the second chapter of The Fallen Jedi: Dionant Janan. I hope y'all liked the first chapter. The amount of views was incredibly low, but I got a review on the first chapter, which was great. I'm used to higher views and very little view to review rates.

Let me know what y'all think about this story. It will be continuing and it will likely be part of a series. The Star Wars Expanded Universe is truly massive, and I hope to delve into a lot of it. I'm going to try and crank out another about 5k word chapter for this chapter, putting me above the 10k bracket. Hopefully then this story will get some more views and reviews and what not.

The more that I think about it the more that I think I might try and have a pairing for the main character in this. I've never really wrote a pairing or ship before though, so it should be interesting. Also if anyone has any ideas or suggestions for clone names just PM me and you will more than likely see your clone in my story. I can't guarantee that he will live very long though.

Thank you to Blorg13 for the review. It is something that I've considered and an interesting thought.

Enjoy the second chapter of The Fallen Jedi: Dionant Janan!

Acrid black smoke poured out of one of the prototype starfighters two ionic engines. Dionant had already gotten out and done his best to make sure it would not explode, and it appeared to be rather stable. He had hit the ground hard, but his starfighter had taken the bare brunt of the assault. Despite taking most of the damage it appeared to be in good working order, except for the engine, and a few of the electronics were fried completely from whatever that massive Separatist battleship had done. "_I need to warn the Jedi about that battleship. It could wreak havoc on our fleets."_

Again Dionant was slipping into his mental dialogue with himself. It was his best way of thinking through issues and problems that he faced.

"_But why? What has the Republic or the Jedi Order done for you? They almost got you killed. You're lucky to be alive after that crash. Who knows how many of your men survived. None of the diplomats did."_

Anger burned bright inside Dionant for a moment. The Jedi Council had sent him here to the Tharin System, only for his mission to fail within two days of beginning. Dionant suppressed his anger as best as he could, internalizing it so it would not distract him from the task at hand.

He was fiddling with a comm transmitter, trying to repair it enough to function so that he could contact his clones of the 93rd Legion. Sparks flew and Dionant cursed as he singed his fingers slightly, black scorch marks marring his skin like ash on a snowy field. The transmitter crackled and popped to life, and a signal was coming through. The signal was mostly static and undecipherable, but a message could be heard.

"...Hello?... Commander Janan?... This… is Captain…. heading…. smoke…" As far as Dionant could tell this meant that Captain Dag, and hopefully at least some of his men, had seen where his starfighter had gone down, and were coming to him.

Turning back to the sleek black starfighter Dionant sighed slightly. It was a shame that it had crashed, and was now damaged. But it did not seem, except for the fried astromech droid and a few fried circuits, like damage that would be irreparable, especially at a Republic space station. Dionant rather liked the speedy starfighter. It was fast and high paced, but it also had formidable weaponry for it's size. It was just the sort of craft that Dionant enjoyed the most, and it was a real shame to him that he would have to be giving it back once the Republic was notified about where they were. "_But maybe if the Republic isn't notified…"_ Dionant let that thought trail off. It would lead no where that would be beneficial to the Jedi.

Inhaling deeply and holding his breath Dionant dove into the task of fixing the engine that was still belching thick black smoke. A few of the components had been damaged, but nothing vital was damaged beyond repair. It would take a few hours, and he would need a few spare parts and tools, but it could be done.

About fifteen minutes into his task Dionant was interrupted by a slight disturbance in the Force, a disturbance that was travelling towards him. It was probably Captain Dag, but the transmitter had ceased to function a few minutes past, not that it had mattered that much. He could not get the actual transmitter part of the transmitter to work, only the signal receiver.

The disturbance in the Force grew stronger, until vanishing completely. A single moment after it vanished it was back, along with a rustling in the bushes. The rustling continued as Dionant jumped up and ignited his golden light saber blade, and assumed a ready stance. The white armor of a clone trooper soon peaked its way through the thick forest, and soon the red paint of the helmet, pauldron, and chest plate were visible. Captain Dag had made it through the forest.

"Captain! Status report on the cruiser." Dionant was still commander of this mission, despite it having already gone horribly wrong.

"The _Justice_ is completely destroyed. Whatever the hell knocked half our electronics and half our engines out had one hell of an effect on us as well. A quarter of the troopers died instantly. We lost another quarter in the crash. Everyone else was knocked unconscious. I'm the only one up."

Dionant took this news in stride. So they would not be able to use the cruiser to get off of this moon that they had crash landed on. Clipping the long since deactivated lightsaber back to his belt Dionant sighed.

"Communications on the prototype are fried. So's the astromech droid. You know where the ARC went down?"

Captain Dag looked around the clearing they were in. It was a small clearing, with a patch of rocks off to the side. It had been_,_ ah, enlarged, by the crash landing of the prototype starfighter.

"Communications are down on the cruiser too. I doubt we'll be able to salvage much from it. The ARC went down a few hundred meters west of here, I believe."

Dionant nodded, and went back to working on his ships engine. He just needed to finish repairing the wiring inside the engine and then it would quit belching the thick black smoke that was giving their position away. The very last thing he needed was for scrappers or salvagers to come by and steal the not-in-production prototype Jedi starfighter from the crash site. But it was a very real possibility. Dionant would just have to be watchful over the Force, and hope that it was not interfered with.

Electricity arced from wire to wire, once again scorching Dionants fingertips slightly, but the connection was sealed. Shortly thereafter the engine had it's minimum power input and the smoke had stopped coming out of the engine. Waving his hand above him, using the Force to disperse the thick smoke that still hung in the air Dionant followed Captain Dag's lead through the forest.

Neither of them knew the name of either the moon they had crash landed on nor the planet that it orbited, but they knew that they were somewhere towards the edge of the Cadma Sector. It was still in the Outer Rim, and rather far into it at that. The Republic held few allies here, and it was unlikely that the clones and the Jedi Knight would receive any generosity or hospitality. They were enforcers of Galactic law and order in a place where Galactic law was simply not recognized in a large manner.

Sensing out across the Force Dionant soon picked up the signal of two life forces in the forest. One was weak, and fading by the minute. The other was strong, but was unresponsive. In Dionant's experience this meant that for whatever reason the strong signal had been incapacitated, whether through being knocked unconscious, poisoned, sleeping, or an assortment of other reasons.

"This way, Captain." The Clone Captain nodded his head, and followed after the Jedi Knight with his blaster in his hands, ready at a moments notice. He was the only clone conscious currently and it fell to him to protect the Jedi Knight. It was one of his most basic orders; to protect and follow the orders and commands of the Jedi. _But a small voice in the very back of Captain Dag's head asked why. Why should he have to protect the Jedi with his life? Because the Chancellor said so?_ Captain Dag shivered down his spine. The thoughts that had just sprung into his head had been chilling, and rather horrifying to think. He was a good clone, and he would do as he was ordered by the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.

Trudging through mud and dirt, up and down multiple hills, and through the thick vegetation the two men came across the ARC starfighter. The entire trip through the forest had been a short trip of just a few hundred meters of thick forest. The life forces had continued to be about the same, with the weaker life force growing fainter as time went by. The other stayed relatively steady, but was still unresponsive at all except to show that it was indeed still living.

"The co-pilot! He's injured badly!" Dag exclaimed loudly as he approached the downed starfighter. Dionant hopped up, using the Force to enhance his leap, and landed up near the cockpit. Prying the cracked and split cockpit open as the clone captain climbed up the nose of the fighter it was obvious that the co-pilot was indeed injured quite badly. The descent down into the atmosphere and surface of the moon had evidently been much rougher for the ARC and its crew of 2 clones. The pilot was fine, knocked out, but was fine judging by his vitals that Captain Dag could now interface with his armor and helmet HUD.

A thick tree branch had impaled the co-pilot through the stomach, piercing cleanly through the troopers armor and embedding itself in his gut. It would be impossible to remove without killing the trooper, and both Dionant and Captain Dag were quickly realizing that the trooper would not make it.

"Captain?... Commander?... Did we… make it?..." The co-pilot was evidently still conscious, as he surprised both the men before him by speaking. His voice was dim and bubbled with blood in his mouth, his lungs shaking and rasping for air.

"We didn't quite get them this time, trooper, but you did well piloting the starfighter."

The dying trooper looked up at both of his commanding officers, and in his final moments it seemed that he was content in accepting the compliment and allowing death to take him. With a last rattle and wheeze Dionant felt the living Force depart from the clone trooper, and sighed a light sigh. It was not the first time he had lost a trooper under his command, but he had not been expecting to lose any on this mission. It was a simple diplomatic mission, but the ambush by the gargantuan superweapon had already killed half his clones and all of the diplomats. Again, it made Dionant question the Council and the Republic itself.

It appeared to be impossible to remove the body of the now deceased trooper without creating a mockery of his death and corpse, so Captain Dag and Dionant left the trooper where he had died, in the co-pilots chair. Captain Dag set to freeing the pilot from his seat restraints, and setting him in the grass next to one of the wings. Dionant checked the starfighters systems and checked for damage.

"Not too much external damage. Needs a lot of internal systems repairs. We could do it if we had the parts, but I do not think that we do. Comms are shot here too. Looks like we're in a bit of a bind here."

Captain Dag nodded in agreement. "What's our plan of action, Commander? We can not continue with the original mission, and we've lost half the clones with us."

"I'm not sure what we do next, Captain. But I'm beginning to doubt that…" Dionant trailed off purposefully, making sure that he did not complete the thought outloud. He was beginning to think that it might not be the wisest idea to return to the Republic. He was thinking more of the circumstances that had led to them crashing on the moon, and something wasn't quite adding up.

A massive battleship like the one that had attacked the group, the _Malevolence_, was not recorded as being in operation by the Separatists as of right now. This, and the superweapon on board that had failed to completely kill all of the victims in it's blast zone, implied that it was unfinished and was undergoing testing. It was similar to how the prototype starfighter Dionant was using was in it's final stages of testing, it appeared that the Separatist superweapon was in it's own final testing phases. It had jumped right out of hyperspace, directly in front of the group of ships that Dionant had been leading, decimated them, and then immediately left. And that was the odd part.

If they had been doing a test of the weapon then the _Malevolence_ would have lingered around, sending out droid starfighters and smaller ships to verify the efficacy of it's superweapon. If they had done so they would have discovered that their weapon was less than completely effective, but in the few moments of shell shock and panic that the surviving clones and Dionant had been unresponsive and unreactive the massive battleship had assumed they were dead and had left, shooting off back into hyperspace. This quick departure meant that they had not cooled off the hyperspace drives after coming into realspace on the approach, meaning that the large ship had expected to be in and out quickly. The fact that it left immediately once it appeared it's target was dead also tipped of Dionant.

It was beginning to look like, at least to Dionant, that he and his group of ships, his mission, had not just been the target of a Separatist superweapon test, but that they had been the unwitting victims in a carefully laid ambush. After all what were the chances of such a small fleet of ships destined for a diplomatic mission running into a highly classified and hidden battleship that the Separatists had done such a good job hiding. It was beginning to look more and more as if Dionant and his clones were the victims of an assassination attempt.

And while Dionant had been careful to trail off of his thought when he had begun to voice it aloud, the Captain had caught it.

"Beginning to doubt what, Sir?" Captain Dag asked, something in his tone and something reaching through the Force to Dionant seemed to suggest that he was more open to discuss alternative courses of action than simply returning to the Republic. Perhaps the Separatist superweapon had had an affect on the clones brains, indeed all of the ones who had survived the initial blast and crash landing were still unconscious.

"I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom in returning directly to the Republic." There. He had said it. He had voiced his opinion, heresy though it may be.

A thick silence hung in the air for a pregnant moment, neither the Captain nor the Jedi moving at all. The Jedi Knight had already positioned his hand near his lightsaber, and the Captain had already had his hand near his sidearm before the awkwardly tense moment had begun. They both realised how close the other was to their weapon, but the situation diffused as the Captain gave a grim nod in agreement. It had taken fierce willpower for the Captain to agree, as agreeing to the statement went against some of the core values he had been born and bred to believe.

Encouraged by the silent agreement of the Captain, Dionant went off on a slight tirade. "It feels like we walked right into a trap, a trap specially made for us. For me and the 93rd. There's no way that Separatist battleship was there to only kill those diplomats. The Tharin System does not matter, no matter how much the Jedi Council spouts their crap about 'regional stability.' It's a backwater, for hell's sake!"

Again the Captain nodded. Dionant was now pacing around the starfighter's wing, still looking closely for smaller signs of damage.

"We need to get back to the cruiser soon, General. According to the chronometer we only have a few more hours of sunlight left."

Dionant nodded in agreement, and gave up on his search for any more damage to the ARC fighter. It was an unnecessary task.

Slumping down and grabbing the unconscious clone trooper and slinging him over his own shoulder Dionant motioned for Captain Dag to take the lead in guiding the group to the destroyed cruiser.

It was just over a single kilometer away, but it was rather rough terrain, especially for Dionant who was carrying the still unconscious clone trooper. They had tried to awaken him, but it had not been successful.

Once more trudging through the forest Dionant was pleasantly surprised that the trek did not seem to take nearly as long as it had seemed when he and Captain Dag had travelled from the prototype starfighter to the ARC starfighter, despite being nearly triple the distance and carrying a clone on his back.

Perhaps the time flew by because he was simply exhausted. Yes. Dionant decided that this was the most logical reason.

The smell of smoke and charred bodies could be smelled from a quarter kilometer out from the crash site, and it jarred Dionants senses. Captain Dag seemed to visibly deflate a bit as they neared the crash site, no doubt lost in his own thoughts of how he had been powerless to save the men under his command, and now the vast majority of the 93rd Clone Trooper Legion was dead, either from fighting on Geonosis or from this fluke of a mission.

And that enraged Captain Dag. He had earned his name 'Dagger' on Geonosis, where so many of his brothers had died. He had exhausted his ammunition in his DC-15 blaster, and had used his DC-15s sidearm in conjunction with a thick vibrodagger he had taken from the body of some poor Geonosian he had killed. He had stood his ground, killing dozens of enemies with the pistol and knife combination, and had emerged through the battle very bloodied and battered, but still standing. He had been protecting several of his wounded comrades while he had earned his nickname.

He and his men had made it through the hell that was unleashed on Geonosis only to die out here in the Outer Rim, possibly betrayed by the Republic. The very same Republic that the clone troopers had been created to defend had possibly given them up to the enemy. And that would not stand for Captain Dag. He swore, as he and Dionant entered the artificial clearing that the skidding and bouncing cruiser had created as it crashed, that if it turned out that the Republic had given them up to the Separatists for any reason at all that he would do everything in his power to bring down the Republic, brick by brick if he had to. No one would hurt or kill the men under his command without consequences, not any more.

The Jedi walking a few steps behind the Captain, who still carried the incapacitated clone trooper, nearly did a double take at the sudden influx of hyperintense feeling that shot through the Force. The feeling clearly originated from the Captain, and on a primal level it felt as if the Captain was mourning all of the men of 93rd Legion lost so far, and made some sort of pact to himself to protect them to his last breath. That was the basis of what Dionant could gather from what Captain Dag was unwittingly passing through across the Force.

Dionant was distracted as he looked out on the wreckage in front of him. He set the unconscious clone trooper down and propped him against an indigenous tree trunk. He could see dozens of white-armored bodies strewn about the crash site, many stained with black, brown, and red from burns, the dirt, and their own blood. It was a heavy sight to see. These were men that while Dionant had only known and commanded them for a few weeks they had bled together and they had fought side by side.

It was hard to see so many of them dead in the dirt of a foreign moon, far out in the Outer Rim, possibly light years from any enemy that they were born to fight. Across and through the Force Dionant could sense that only about half of the clone troopers were alive, but the ones that were alive were still knocked out, which was odd. It had been several hours since their crash landing, and they should have regained consciousness by now. It was seeming more and more likely that the Seperatist superweapon had had an unexpected effect on the clone troopers. Perhaps that was it's main purpose, to knock out electronics and to also knock clone troopers out of commission for extended amounts of time.

"They should be up by now. Night will fall soon, we need to gather the survivors and put them inside what's left of the cruiser. That will have to do for tonight."

Captain Dag nodded, and went about checking the clones for vital signs, and the ones that were still alive he would drag into the wreckage of the cruiser, leaving the dead clones where they fell. They had no time to spare in moving the dead clones, they would have to do that the next day. Night was coming and in the Outer Rim, and on all less civilized planets and moons it was a good idea to find shelter, especially if you are unfamiliar or unknowledgeable about the area you are in.

_The assembled members of the Jedi Council sat in their respective seats in the chamber. The conversation slowly became audible, but was fuzzy, as if through a comm transmitter in an electrical storm. _

_Master Windu was speaking. "The mission was a failure, as we expected. The boy was gunned down by this Separatist superweapon."_

_The group nodded, some of them looking remorseful, others looking plain curious and questioning at the notion of this Separatist superweapon._

"_Regrettable it was, but needed, I think." The elderly Master Yoda chimed in with agreement to Master Windu._

"_The Malevolence jumped out of hyperspace at precisely the correct time, destroying the group of ships. Our recon vessels were able to get a much clearer image and data on the Malevolence and it's capabilities." Master Windu continued to speak._

"_We know that it is not completely functional, as it did not kill all of the electronics onboard the ships, and it did not kill all of the clones. We tracked the prototype starfighter, ARC starfighter, and light cruiser to where they crashed, on a small moon called Plethea, that orbits the planet Tatis V."_

_One of the other members of the council spoke up, "Are we going to retrieve Dionant and the clones?"_

"_Worth our time, it is not." _

_The deep baritone voice of Master Windu dismissed the Council, "This Council is dismissed. We shall meet again shortly. May the Force be with you."_

The dream like vision faded away, and Dionant sat bolt upright from where he had been sleeping in the wreckage of the cruiser, lightsaber igniting as it flew to his outstretched hand.

Captain Dag jumped up, retrieving both of his pistols and aiming around the wreckage, checking his helmet for targeting information. But no threat was immediately apparent.

Within a few moments Dionant had calmed down and extinguished his lightsaber. He had been sleeping when he had had the vision, and Captain Dag had been on first watch of the night.

"I saw them. The Jedi Council. They were talking about us, how it was all a plot to see the Separatist superweapon in action. They sent us out here to die, Dag."

The clone captain lowered his pistols, replacing them in their holsters, and digested this new information.

"They betrayed us, the Republic and the Jedi Order betrayed us." It was beginning to sink in for the clone captain, who Dionant could feel was becoming very angry very quickly.

"THEY SENT US OUT HERE TO DIE. THEY SENT GOOD CLONES TO THEIR DEATHS. I'LL KILL THEM ALL!"

At this point the clone captain had tried to charge past Dionant, where he was going Dionant was not sure, but he stopped him in his tracks. Using the Force to give him the strength necessary to hold the clone captain back Dionant spoke to him, lacing his voice with the Force.

"Captain, you need to calm down. The Jedi Order and the Republic will pay for what they did to us. You need to calm down and think clearly now. We have a lot to plan, and a lot to do. I know the name of this moon and the planet it orbits. I need to know if you have any information about them."

It appeared that giving the captain a task to perform immediately had successfully diverted the clone captains attention and anger, at least for the time being.

"What planet is it, General?"

"According to the vision I had, of the Jedi Council, we are on a moon called Plethea, which orbits the planet Tatis V. Do either of those names mean anything to you?"

The clone captain removed his helmet, painted red signifying his captaincy, and scratched his chin in thought.

"No, I've never heard of them, but I do not really know much about Outer Rim Systems and sectors at all."

"Neither do I. I know that we are close to the Tharin System, our original goal. But it does not matter. I believe we should be leaving this world as soon as possible."

The clone captain nodded, and set his helmet on a flat piece of what was once the floor of the cruiser but was now more twisted wreckage than anything else.

"Captain, do we have an accurate number of surviving clones?"

"Yes. The four Lieutenants of Alpha company survived, and most of their squads. It appears that Alpha company was the only company to survive both the superweapon and the crash landing. We have maybe a hundred and forty five clones surviving."

"And where are we with supplies? Food and ammunition?" This would be the difficult part to hear, as Dionant was worried that the clones would run out of food before being able to decide their next move.

"The cruiser was fully stocked, it was being re-deployed along with us and the rest of the survivors of the 93rd Legion right after our mission was completed. We have food for several months, especially with the lowered troop numbers." It was a hard fact to face, but it was true. The fact that over half the clones on the cruiser had perished would make that much easier for the remaining clones.

"And ammunition?"

"We have plenty, we will be able to hold our own until we find an acceptable resupply point."

Dionant nodded in response, and let his thoughts wander, and pondered various situations.

"Captain, I do believe that our betrayal will serve well as termination and banishment of our employment and servitude to the Galactic Republic and Jedi Order respectively. I believe that we are free men, able to go where we please and do what we want. We are able to live our lives how we wish, study what we want, talk to who we want, take what we want, buy what we want, do _whatever_ we want. Something expressly forbidden in life as a Jedi, and something unthinkable to a clone in the Galactic Army of the Republic."

"I am no longer your commanding officer, and as such I can give you no orders that you are bound to follow. What you wish to do, and your men wish to do, is completely up to you."

The clone captain was stunned. He had not quite realized what the whole situation meant for him and his clones. They were free. They were not bound in servitude and essentially slavery to the whims of the Supreme Chancellor. They could do whatever they wished, go wherever they pleased. And that idea unnerved the captain more than a little. He was unused to this sort of freedom, and was not quite ready for it.

While this freedom did frighten the clone captain somewhat, he knew what his answer was to the unspoken question Dionant had raised to him.

The captain rose from his seated position as he spoke, and made a sharp salute. "I will stand with you, Commander. I will stand my ground at your side and hold firm. You will always have an ally in me."

And that's the second chapter of my story. I hope y'all all enjoy it greatly. I really enjoy writing it. Let me know what y'all think about it. Also if anyone has a clone name or clone name idea **please** PM me with it. I will be needing lots of clone names in the coming chapters, and it will be much easier to write if I don't have to come up with dozens of clone names.

Thanks for reading, and Merry Christmas to everybody out there.


	3. Chapter 3

I do not own the Star Wars universe. That said I am hopeful and optimistic about the new trilogy that the first film of which will be coming out this year. It looked entertaining at least from the trailer.

This is the 3rd chapter of my story and I'm not sure how long it will be, hopefully around 10k words, but we'll see.

Feedback's been pretty good on the last couple chapters, thank you to war sage for giving a great list of some clone trooper names, you'll be seeing a lot of those in this chapter and in the future.

Also to clarify Dionant will not be a Sith. He is an independent, and will be using both light side and dark side talents but will likely remain independent/ grey/ whatever.

"Commander, the troopers are waking up!" The excited voice of Captain Dag, leader of the remnants of the 93rd Legion, disrupted Dionant's precise meditations. It appeared that what the Captain had said was true, and that Dionant had been too deep in meditation to sense the returning consciousness of the troopers through the Force. He had been meditating over what his primary course of action should be and how best to accomplish it. It would be a tricky process, especially now that he had been disavowed and left for dead by the Republic and the Jedi.

All around the wreckage of the light cruiser clone troopers were coming to, groggily wiping their eyes and checking their surroundings. About half or so of the total surviving troopers were now awake and on their feet, checking their weapons and looking around the crash site.

"Captain! Orders and status report, sir?" One of the surviving Lieutenants, Lieutenant Fox if Dionant remembered correctly, had come up to where the Captain and Dionant were standing, and asked.

"Crash landed on a small moon, breathable atmosphere and no known hostiles as of right now, Lieutenant. Our situation has changed, the Commander and I will be giving a briefing once everyone wakes up." Captain Dag said.

Captain Dag continued, "Help everyone wake up and gather outside the wreckage for the briefing, we have some big news to share and some decisions to make."

The Lieutenant looked confused, but followed through with the order anyways. Soon enough the four surviving platoons of the 93rd Legion were gathered outside of the wreckage of the light cruiser, and were awaiting further orders.

"Attention!" Captain Dag barked out, causing all of the clone troopers gathered outside of the wreckage to snap to attention and salute.

Dionant stood next to Captain Dag as the clone captain continued to speak.

"We are in a bit of a situation here. We have crash landed on the moon Plethea, orbiting the planet Tatis V. However it does not appear that we will be receiving any aid or any sort of rescue from the Republic nor the Jedi Order." Captain Dag paused and allowed this information to sink in for a moment. Many confused faces could be seen in the crowd, and even a few angry and indignant faces that had begun to realize exactly what it meant that the Republic would not be coming to get them.

Dionant took a step forward and began speaking, "I received a vision, through the Force, a short while ago. In this vision I could see and hear the Jedi High Council discussing how their plan had all along been to use us, the 93rd Legion and myself, as a test target for the Separatist superweapon we encountered. Our deaths were merely supposed to provide more detailed intel than they had, and despite knowing our exact location when we crash landed they decided to withhold any aid. The Republic and the Jedi Order have forsaken us and sent us to die out here in the Outer Rim."

Angry and still confused chatter could be heard among the troopers, but was silenced by the Lieutenants and the Captain as he raised his hand to speak again.

"As of right now, myself, as Commander of the 93rd Legion, and Commander Dionant have decided that it is within our best interests to not return to the Republic nor the Jedi Order. They sent us to die meaningless deaths and turned their backs on us. As we are no longer members of the Galactic Army of the Republic and are no longer order or duty bound to fight it is now up to each of you to decide your own fates. I, and Commander Dionant, invite each of you to continue with us, continue your lives and fates with ours and let us stand together as brothers until the day we die."

Captain Dag continued, "It is not required that you follow us, you may do as you please now that you are all free men. Anyone who wishes to follow us and stand by their brothers please follow Commander Dionant and I, and we will move on from there. Dismissed, brothers."

Captain Dag was done speaking, and he and Dionant worked their way into one of the larger, and still mostly intact rooms to deal with any clones that wished to continue on with them. Neither the clone captain nor the former Jedi had known what to expect nor had they been prepared for the sheer amount of clones that wished to follow them and stay on with them. Just about every single trooper who had survived the crash landing had worked their way through the room, swearing their loyalty to the captain and the former Jedi.

Nearly one hundred and fifty clone troopers and their commanding officers worked their way past the two commanders, each being told to find themselves some food and water after swearing their loyalty. Neither the captain nor the former Jedi were worried about any of the clones betraying them, loyalty meant everything to a clone and right now they had no one else. They were all forsaken and left for dead, and banding together was their best shot at survival. Plus they had all served together, fought, bled and lost comrades together. The 93rd Legion was a tight knit group of tough soldiers.

It was several hours later, and Captain Dag, Dionant, and the four surviving Lieutenants were seated outside of the crashed cruiser, discussing what to do next.

Dionant was speaking, "We must make a decision about what we wish to do with our lives from here on out. We are not bound by the whims of the Republic or the Jedi anymore. Captain?"

"I will follow your lead and your orders, Commander. Whatever you do I will do."

The Lieutenants nodded their agreement.

"We've all been confined our entire lives, following the Chancellor's orders or the Council's orders. We have freedom now, and I think we should use that freedom to strike back at what hurt us in the first place."

Captain Dag spoke with authority in his voice, "The Republic."

Lieutenant Mako spoke, he was one of the four surviving Lieutenants of the 93rd Legion, and he lead one of the four platoons. "How do we fight the Republic? We're only four platoons strong, and we're stuck on this backwater, Outer Rim moon."

Dionant thought for a moment, and came up with an idea. "We can hit the Republic where they won't expect us, in their own territory. Their supply lines aren't as secure as they'd like. But to hit their supply lines we'll need to do a few things first. First we need to set up a base of operations, and second we need transportation off world. The cruiser won't be flying ever again."

"For ships we can make repairs to both the Jedi starfighter and the ARC starfighter but we will need at least one more larger ship to transport the rest of the clones." That was Lieutenant Mako again.

"I believe this moon we are on now has a spaceport, but we would need to repair the scanners on the cruiser to tell where exactly."

Dionant spoke, "Set some men on repairing the scanners. We need to also set some men to repair the starfighter and the ARC starfighter, we will need both of those if we are going against the Republic."

Captain Dag made some gestures and immediately two of the Lieutenants were on their helmet comm channels, sending orders to their men to begin repairs on the scanners and both the starfighters.

Dionant continued, half giving orders and half thinking out loud, "We need a full inventory done on our supplies, including our food, water, ammunition, weaponry, any vehicles that may have survived the crash, personnel, and credits."

Now clone troopers could be seen jogging around, setting about completing the tasks that they had been ordered, their white armor gleaming in the sunlight of the local sun. Some could be seen taking everything that had survived out of the cargo holds of the cruiser, counting and recording everything that they came across. Other clones were gathering in their squads and it appeared were preparing to set out into the thick forest, one squad heading towards the Jedi starfighter and another squad preparing to head towards the downed ARC starfighter.

The armored white bodies of clones were now climbing their way up the side of the crashed cruiser, crawling all over the sensor and scanner arrays, attempting to repair them.

The Lieutenants went off to tend to their own business, leaving the captain and the former Jedi to tend to their business.

"Commander, hitting the Republic supply lines sounds a lot like piracy. Is that what we're going to be now? Pirates?"

"No Captain, we will not be pirates, however we probably will do a good amount of stealing from the Republic. We will need credits to survive, and we will obtain those credits however we can." Dionant had given a strong response. "What does it matter if we are pirates? We can only hurt the Republic if we are, we've got the freedom to do as we please now."

A clone trooper came jogging up to Dionant and Captain Dag, with a datapad in his hands, "Commander! Full inventory, as you requested, sir!"

Handing over the datapad and giving a salute the trooper stood at attention, waiting for further orders.

"Dismissed."

Dionant and the Captain looked over the datapad, and discussed their situation.

"We have plenty of supplies, sir. Our only worry is transportation and supply for such a large group. We'll be needing credits too." The Captain was saying.

"I agree. Once we get the scanners working we can try and find a way off of this moon, if that is what we wish to do."

Captain Dag paused and seemed to mentally check out of their conversation as he raised a hand to his helmet and spoke.

"Confirm, Lieutenant, scanners are operational?"

Dionant could hear nothing, and assumed that the Captain was speaking with whichever Lieutenant had taken it upon themselves to oversee the repairs of the scanners and sensors. It became clear a moment after when Captain Dag lowered his hand and spoke.

"Scanners are fixed, sir. They are operational now and should have a rather exact location within the next fifteen minutes for any major settlements or spaceports nearby. A whole scan of the moon will take longer."

"Alright Captain. Check in on the teams at the starfighters and come find me once you have a report."

It was nearly fifteen minutes later when the clone captain approached the Jedi, who was once again meditating on how to proceed. Dionant knew that he must consult and read the Force as much as possible before making any drastic moves. He was no longer a member of the Jedi Order, but he was still a skilled Force user and lightsaber wielder. He figured that he was no longer a Jedi, but was rather like one of the Rogue or Dark Jedi he had learned of at the Temple. He was no Sith, but he was simply more willing to use the dark side of the Force than the more restricted members of the Jedi Order.

The Force was murky and hard to read, more so now than ever before. It was nearly impossible to discern any sort of foreknowledge or insight from the Force in any detail except the barest and vaguest of sorts. All that Dionant could tell was that the Force was shifting and twirling in the system they were currently in.

The clone captain strolled up to the ex-Jedi, his helmet held firm under his arm, and gave a small salute. "Both starfighter team's have reported in. The Eta-2 is in decent shape, and will be available for use within the day. The ARC starfighter will need a replacement part that the teams have not been able to find immediately."

"What are the scanners showing, Captain?"

"Decent sized spaceport about thirty clicks from here, due east. It would probably have a suitable replacement part for the ARC."

"Were any of the speederbikes salvaged from the wreckage?"

"Yes, sir, three were."

"Ready one of them."

The Captain saluted again and left, jogging off to continue salvaging everything possible from the wreckage, and setting up a suitable defensive perimeter around the wreckage.

The wind whipped and blew out Dionant's hair around his head, and nearly deafening him as he sped across a clear patch of terrain in his speederbike. It was difficult to travel very quickly through the thicker areas of forest, but the small bikes basic scanners could detect where a path was through the forest in a rough manner. It had been a few hours since Dionant had set out from the 'base camp' that had been set up by the clones.

The 74-Z speederbike had an incredible top speed, but the thick terrain made it impossible to use much more than a fraction of it's high potential speed. It did prove quite useful when Dionant could find a suitable path for him to take, instead of slowly working his way through thick forest and foliage.

Giving the speeder one last blast of power to break through a dense set of vines that had been blocking his passage Dionant was assaulted with bright bright light of the outside world contrasted starkly with the dim and paltry light that managed to reach the forest floor through the thick canopy above. He had burst through the edge of the forest and was now looking directly ahead at a medium sized spaceport. A few small ships could be seen ascending or descending from above every few minutes, and the place seemed like it would possibly have a suitable replacement part for the ARC starfighter.

Nudging the controls and sending the speederbike hurtling towards the city the ex- Jedi entered the city. Various races and species could be seen walking and milling around, some chatting to each other, some performing some sort of job. It was a typical Outer Rim spaceport. Outer Rim spaceports were notorious for harboring criminals and serving as the base of operations or just temporary location of many bounty hunters, pirates, and other criminals. Guiding the speeder bike to one of the busier looking cantina's Dionant shut off the engine and walked inside.

The inside was not very crowded, just a few people sipping their drinks or quietly conversing. No music was playing and it was eerily calm. Nonplussed, Dionant approached the bartender and asked where he could find a starship repair facility.

A vague wave of the bartender's arm and a mumbled "Flak's." helped convince Dionant that the bartender would be less than helpful and to simply set off in the direction the man had waved his arm.

Dionant's search proved fruitful within a few minutes and he had located a facility named "Flak's Starship Repair."

Walking inside Dionant found a Bothan male who was poking and prodding the insides of what appeared to be a disassembled battle droid.

The man did not appear to have heard Dionant enter, and so Dionant spoke, "Flak, I presume?"

"How can I help you?" The Bothan asked, not looking up from his work on the droid.

"I need this part." Dionant said as he placed a small holo-projector on the worktable the droid was currently on and activated it. A part, a small but necessary component of one of the engine's, rotated in the mid-air projection.

The Bothan glanced up and said, "Four hundred credits."

Dionant did not have four hundred credits. It was a rather inflated price, and the ex- Jedi was sure the he could negotiate the price down to a more reasonable rate, but he had something else in mind. Waving his hand in front of him, towards the Bothan who was still focused on the droid, Dionant said, "**You will get me this part, free of charge.**" The Bothan repeated the phrase and mindlessly got up and wandered to the rear of the workshop for a few moments.

The Bothan returned with the part in his hand, and he still had a slightly dazed and glazed over look on his face. Handing off the part and returning to his work Dionant left the repair shop, content with his success. He had been thinking of different ways to utilize his skill and ability with the Force for his benefit, and using it's persuasion techniques seemed like it could be quite useful.

Walking back onto the street, Dionant was mounting his speeder bike as he heard a voice call out, "Hey! You!" Dionant continued to mount the bike, nonplussed at the call for his attention.

"I've got a job, easy pay for easy work!" The voice was closer now. Turning his head to address whoever it was Dionant saw a human woman, who looked incredibly nervous and scared of something. She was wearing a thick hood that concealed most of her face, but was still visibly shaken and jittery. She approached the speeder bike when it became obvious that Dionant was not leaving at that moment.

"What is it?" Dionant asked. He simply wished to go back to the clones and repair the ARC fighter so they could decide their next move to make. But it was true that he needed credits and would be in the future. He and the clones had not been given any when they had been deployed, and they would need credits for basic supplies and other products.

The woman stumbled over her words a few times, finally managing to get out, "I need you to, um… uh… kill… someone for me."

Dionant was disgusted and started the speeder bikes engine and prepared to speed off when the woman pleaded with him, "Please! I can't do it! I can pay you well! Don't go!"

"How much?" It was somewhat disgusting to Dionant that he was stooping so low as to be bartering the price of someone's life, but he figured that that was what the Jedi Order had instilled in him.

"Three thousand credits."

"Not enough." Dionant began to move the speeder bike forwards slowly, acting as if he was going to leave.

"No! Wait! A ship, too! You can have my husband's ship if you kill him for me!" Dionant looked back at the woman, who had lowered her hood. She was now more nervous than ever, and was darting her eyes all around them around the street. She was shaking slightly, and angry purple bruises could be seen on her face and dark purple bruises could be seen on her arms and wrists, obvious signs of a harsh and tight grip.

"You want me to kill your husband, and in return you will give me his ship?"

"Yes, yes. A B-7. It's a good ship, he loves it." The woman was begging for Dionant's help, and it now seemed that killing the husband might not be the worst thing to do. He was obviously abusive and rough with his wife, and had her terrified at the notion of doing anything to help herself.

"Where is he now?"

"At the cantina. He's always at the cantina. His name is Jido. He'll be the drunkest one there and he'll be there all day and night"

Dionant nodded, and simply said, "I'll do it. Meet me here at midnight tonight and it will be done."

"Captain Dag, come in Captain Dag, this is Dionant." Dionant was hailing the clone captain over the communications transponder. Dionant had revved up the speeder bike and had sped away from the woman who now appeared to be having a slight mental or nervous breakdown, and had parked in an alley between two buildings several streets away.

"Hearing you loud and clear, sir."

"I will not be returning until late tonight, I've come upon quite an opportunity that would be helpful for us."

"Understood sir, what, if I may ask, is this opportunity?"

"It's the first step in undoing the damage the Jedi Order did to me. Dionant out."

It was a few hours before the agreed meeting time between Dionant and the still unnamed woman, and Dionant was readying himself for what was about to happen. He had been in meditation for a few hours, trying to discern what the Force had to tell him about what he intended to do. It was still difficult and hard to tell, but it appeared that the Force cared not either way.

Looking down at the lightsaber hilt that he held in his hand Dionant sighed as he rose. He had been seated in the same alleyway he had parked in earlier, but now it was time to head to the cantina. Proceeding to the cantina, on foot rather than on the speeder bike, Dionant passed several streets of dirty and dingy shops, stores, and homes. Entering the same cantina/ bar that he had went inside earlier Dionant found the bartender once more and inquired about who Jido might be and where he could find him.

In reply Dionant received another vague wave of a hand, but a slight pull in the Force revealed exactly where to go to Dionant. A dirty, filth covered man in what appeared to be somewhat soiled clothing was slumped over one of the tables, empty mug spilled from his hand. He was barely conscious as Dionant approached and leaned down.

"Jido? Are you Jido?"

In between mumbling and incoherent speaking Dionant heard, "Go 'way, tryin' t' sleep."

"Jido, your wife was seen with another man today, kissing in an alley." It was a lie, and a rather obvious lie if the drunken man had been able to or had been of the type to stop and think his decisions through. Barely able to walk the man rose from the table and staggered out to the door, tossing a few credit chips onto the tabletop for the bartender.

Dionant helped walk the mumbling, but apparently angry and determined Jido out into the streets into the cool nights air. Jido stumbled and staggered around, and nearly fell a few times. Dionant slightly pushed him into yet another alleyway and retrieved his lightsaber from where it had been hidden in his robes. Igniting the golden yellow blade in the dark night, making the alleyway shine with it's light Dionant wasted no time. He did not give himself a chance to second guess or allow the Jedi training to take over. He brought the blade down in a quick slash and ended the man's miserable life.

Inside of himself Dionant felt something shift and change. He felt a brief flare up in the Force, a spike in activity that sent a tingling pleasure through his body. It unnerved him that it felt like that to kill in cold blood, but the feeling was sent from the Force, which also unnerved Dionant. The Force had seemingly approved of killing the man. Had it been because the man had been a bad person? Had it been because the Force simply favored Dionant? Did the Force favor one being over another? They were all questions that Dionant did not have the answer to immediately, and would need to think about further.

Putting the body behind some trash and debris and also removed the man's wedding band from his hand. Pocketing the ring and satisfied that the body was sufficiently hidden Dionant left the alleyway. Dionant stashed his lightsaber again as he walked out and headed towards where he and the woman had agreed to meet.

It was a few minutes later that Dionant reached the alleyway, right at the stroke of midnight, and saw the woman already waiting for him. She was pacing back and forth in the small space, and the dim light of a datapad was the only thing that illuminated her face. The bruises were still visible, but now a thin sheen of sweat could be seen, even in the cool night's air.

She saw Dionant enter the alley and swayed on her feet for a moment. "Is… is it done?" She asked.

"Yes. Here." He tossed the wedding band to the woman, who immediately recognized it as the match to her own. She sighed with relief and Dionant was not sure if it was tears he saw welling in her eyes or a trick of the dim light.

"The credits?" He asked.

"Here. It's all that I have. The ship is in the dockyard. The code is here." The woman handed over a scrap of paper with several numbers on it, and three credit bars, each worth one thousand credits and most importantly the command chip for the ship.

Dionant accepted everything the woman handed him, and left the alleyway, walking to where he had left his speederbike. Soon arriving at the bike and firing up the engine he sped off to where he had seen the ships rising and landing earlier in the day.

It was a few minutes later when he arrived, and punched in the keycode that was scribbled on the scrap of paper and went inside the ship dockyard. It was late and night and not many people were there, but several droids were still milling around, completing various tasks. The area was not well lit but was not very dark. It was an open air hangar, and as such was available to access any time of the day. Walking up to a human teenager in a booth who appeared to be the dockyard attendant for the night shift Dionant spoke, "I need the B-7 unlocked."

The boy looked at him with a peculiar glance, as if he recognized that Dionant was not the one who usually picked up the B-7, but simply asked to see the command chip. Dionant showed the boy the chip and he shrugged, hitting a few buttons inside his booth and a stall that was farther down in the dockyard unlocked and lit up.

Dionant walked away without thanking the boy, intent on seeing his prize quickly. Approaching the now lit and unlocked stall that held the ship Dionant rounded the corner and got the first glimpse of his payment. It was a standard B-7 light freighter, with a single light laser cannon for defense. It was a smaller ship, only 19 meters long, with only enough cargo room for one metric ton of cargo and 8 passengers. It could be crewed by a single pilot, and it was also equipped with a hyperdrive. This B-7 was not in the best shape, but was still in relatively good shape. It was not missing any components and the exterior appeared fine.

Hitting the command chip, the ship opened up and Dionant entered. It appeared to be in working order, the interior was a bit dusty and dirty but nothing was glaringly wrong. Setting the ships internal computer to perform a diagnostic scan of itself, interior and exterior, Dionant exited the ship and the dockyard to retrieve his speeder bike. When he returned the scan had been completed, and it informed Dionant that the ship was fully functional and that the only thing wrong with it was the dirt and dust that had accumulated.

Putting the speeder bike into the cargo hold of the ship and using the comms array to get in contact with one of the clone Lieutenants Dionant turned the engines on. Being very careful and using just a fraction of it's power Dionant guided the ship out of the docking stall and into the main departure/ arrival area for the hangar. Rising out of the open topped dome Dionant set off towards the clearing where the wrecked cruiser was, quite content in his prize despite what he had to do to earn it.

The light freighter touched down in a cleared out landing zone near the wrecked cruiser, and Dionant was greeted by one of the Lieutenants, Lieutenant Fox. It seemed as if only Lieutenant Fox and his men were still awake and active, standing night guard duty.

It had been a very long day for Dionant, who was still thinking of the peculiar way the Force had acted as he had struck down the drunkard of a man. The Lieutenant gave him a report over what had happened since he had departed earlier that day, which was not very much. The scanners had been working away, trying to get a more detailed layout of the terrain surrounding the wreckage. Dionant had handed off the replacement part for the ARC starfighter to the Lieutenant with orders that it be repaired as soon as it was light out. It was dangerous inside the forests at night, and Dionant would not risk his clone soldiers.

Leaving the Lieutenant and his men to their night guard and watch Dionant entered the wreckage to find a place to sleep. They had only crash landed less than two days ago and his life had already taken huge strides away from what it had been with the Jedi Order. He was now planning on actively fighting the Republic, alongside his clone troopers, and doing everything he could to bring down the Jedi Order. It would be a monumental undertaking for him and his troops, but he was confident that they had the perseverance and the determination to see it through to the end or die trying.

That was the 3rd chapter. It is consistent with my about 5k per chapter length for this story. I'm going to keep this story that way, being done in 5k increments. I don't know when I will do the next chapter.

A good bit got done this chapter, and next chapter will be dealing mainly with setting up a more permanent base of operations and moving on from there.

Let me know what y'all think about this story and it's characters. I love feedback and reviews. Thank you.


	4. Chapter 4

Hey y'all, I'm back again with another chapter of The Fallen Jedi: Dionant Janan. I don't know if any of you follow any of my other stories but my main story, a Harry Potter fanfic, will be taking the backseat for this one for a while.

I've really gotten sort of sucked into the Star Wars EU and this story. This chapter has taken me a very very long time to write, and I'm not quite sure why. But don't worry I should be updating this fairly regularly. I don't think anyone really reads the Author Notes. So if you did read it let me know or not. I don't give that much of a shit anymore.

I really would love some feedback on this story. The story should hit about 20,000 words after this chapter and I expect to start getting more reviews and views after that. Let me know what y'all think.

"Scanners indicate a pretty expansive cave system with a large opening a couple kilometers from here, near the Eta starfighter."

The Lieutenants, Captain Dag, and Dionant were all crowded around a salvaged data display that was linked to the freshly repaired scanner array. It had been set to scan a five kilometer radius. The topographical scan had been completed at some point during the night and was now being reviewed.

"How large is the cave system?" Dionant asked.

One of the Lieutenants, Lieutenant Flak, responded. "About half a dozen kilometers long total. It consists of a few larger caverns, with longer tunnels connecting these caverns. Only one entrance has been discovered so far, but we believe another might be present along this tunnel." The Lieutenant pointed an armored finger towards one of the tunnels that branched off from another tunnel, rather deep into the cave system itself.

Captain Dagger spoke next. "The entrance is nearby, and according to the topographical scanner it is small. It opens up into a cavern wide enough for smaller spacecraft to traverse if the area around it was cleared and an opening created."

Dionant nodded in understanding, and shot a glance towards the clone captain. What the captain had just said had given Dionant an idea. Right now the clones were homeless and had no real direction or drive. They were all upset and understandably outraged at the Republic and Jedi Order. Dionant would love nothing more than to see the Republic crumble and the Jedi along with it. But to see his plans through Dionant would need a base, a spot to consolidate and grow in his power.

"Send some scouts on the speeder bikes. I want a report by midday." Dionant saw Lieutenant Flak, who's platoon was one of the last of the 93rd with any scout trooper squads surviving, raise a hand to his helmet and assumed that he was dispatching the three speeder bikes to the location of the entrance to the cave.

It was still early in the morning, but the commanders had been up for hours. The sun was just now rising, and along with it the clone troopers were waking up and beginning their drills and duties for the day. For now they did not quite know what to do, they had no orders from their superiors. And they had no orders because their superiors had no plan so far. But Dionant did have a plan, and not just his overarching dream of crumbling the Republic, but he had a more short term plan.

Dionant wished to create his base here on this small moon of Plethea that orbits the planet Tatis V. Out here so far in the Outer Rim it was common that the Republic simply held little or no sway or even ability to uphold it's own laws. Piracy, crime, and rebellion ran rampant through the Outer Rim, and Dionant planned to utilize this to his full advantage. To form and fund his own rebellion he would need to build up an empire of his own here in the Outer Rim. It would be a difficult and very long process, but Dionant was sure he would one day see both the Republic and the Jedi fall. Dionant only felt rage and hate in his heart when he thought of the betrayal that was meant to kill him and his comrades.

The scanner suddenly switched it's display to show an overview of the wreckage where they currently were, and was showing a fast moving dot approaching them.

"Captain, get me a reading on whatever that is." Dionant said.

The Captain nodded and began pressing buttons on the display, and a concerned look came over his face.

"Low flying ship, coming in fast. It will be here in about two minutes."

Dionant took the news in and made a decision. He could either wait and see if the ship would be landing and have the clones do nothing, or he could scramble the clones and have them ready to engage a potential threat. Dionant chose the latter option.

"Captain, Lieutenants, ready the men. I want all able clones ready to engage on my mark."

The officers all rushed off, jamming helmets onto their heads as they barked orders into the comms and began organizing their troops. Two minutes was very little warning time to prepare for much of anything, but the clones had done their best to be ready.

The scanner display beeped to life again, and Dionant saw that the dot that had been much further away just a couple of minutes ago was now just a few inches away on the screen. The low whine of starship engines tuned down for atmospheric flight. It was only another few short moments before the ship,

The ship suddenly appeared in the skyline above the thick upper canopy of the treetops and hovered. Dionant attempted to raise the captain of the starship on the comms but that proved unfruitful. Dozens of blaster rifles were pointed up at the hovering starship, all of the clones having prepared as best as possible. Many of the clones could be seen peeking out from behind cover, and Dionant saw Captain Dag looking his way, waiting for orders.

The hovering starship began to descend into the clearing, with the eyes and the blasters of everyone in the clearing trained on the ship as it lowered. Landing gear descended and the ship touched down. Steam hissed as the starship equalized pressure and a ramp lowered from the hull.

Over the comms Dionant ordered the clones to hold their fire. From the top of the ramp a figure could be seen that slowly hobbled it's way down the ramp. As it made it's way down further and further it became obvious that the figure was a droid, one of the run-of-the-mill protocol droids. It shambled it's way down the ramp and partway into the clearing, identifying and approaching Dionant. Two clones near Dionant stood and leveled their weapons at the droid while it began to speak.

"My master requests that the commanding officer of this force to please join him onboard the ship, if you please." The droid spoke in the typical protocol droid voice that grated slightly on Dionant's ears.

Stepping forward confidently with one hand making a gesture of greeting to the droid and the other hand firmly on the hilt of his lightsaber Dionant walked. Shaking his head to Captain Dag in a motion to let him know that he would sort everything out Dionant began to walk up the ramp, following a couple of steps behind the droid. This was an unexpected visit, and Dionant did not enjoy the fact that he was walking into what was potentially a trap.

Walking into the interior of the ship Dionant looked around. It was a spacious and luxurious ship that had obviously been designed with leisure in mind and a hefty budget to work around. This did not give too many clues as to the identity of the person he was going to meet, but it did lay Dionant's mind to rest. A bounty hunter would be very unlikely to have such a pristine and expensive ship, and a bounty hunter would have to be mad in the first place to land in the middle of what appeared to be a Republic crash site crawling with clones and a Jedi warrior.

Crossing through a bulkhead while still following the shining body of the polished protocol droid through the dim lighting of the ships interior, Dionant never removed his hand from his lightsaber hilt. He was being very wary about his surroundings and what might be about to transpire.

The droid reached a door and reached for a button, pressing it. The door split in half, and revealed the room's contents. The room was dimly light, like the rest of the ship, but a large figure could be seen sitting behind a desk in the room, slowly moving about the desk reaching for papers and dataslates that vaguely illuminated the figures face.

Dionant could not see incredibly well in the dark of the room, but he could see that the figure was large in a corpulent manner rather than a muscular manner. Three eyes shone in the dim light on eye stalks above a goat like mouth, identifying the figure as a member of the Gran species. Dionant did not know much about the Gran, only that they were typically a peaceful species, but Dionant also knew that every rule had exceptions.

The bloated mass of a man opened his animal like mouth and spoke in basic. "Jedi warrior, you have brought the Republic Army to my moon. Have you brought the war along with you?"

Dionant thought a moment before responding, "I have brought neither the war nor the Republic Army to this moon. We are no longer a part of the Republic."

The Gran turned his full attention to Dionant, examining him more closely than he had appeared to before. Dionant took this time to take a better look at the Gran who still had not identified himself. He was a fat man, and was wearing what looked to be an expensive set of robes.

"Not part of the Republic? If you are deserters then the Republic will be looking, and that will bring trouble to us."

"We were forsaken by the Republic, sent out here to the Outer Rim to die. It was essentially luck that we survived and crash landed here on this moon."

The Gran seemed to think about this, and Dionant studied him. Sighing as he rose from the desk and walked around it, puffing slightly on the way, the Gran held out a hand for Dionant to shake. A finely crafted leather holster was nearly completely hidden beneath the rolls of fatty mass the Gran had accumulated.

"Damas. I am the functioning governor of this moon." The Gran introduced himself.

"Dionant Janan. Former Jedi Knight."

The Gran, now introduced as Damas, shuffled himself from his position now in front of his desk to the side of the room and began fumbling around in one of the cabinets. Standing up straight as he emerged from rummaging inside the cabinet Damas raised a bottle of green liquid in one hand and two glasses in the other hand. Moving over to the desk again Damas set the glasses down and poured a good amount of the green liquid into each, handing one to Dionant.

"To peace and prosperity!" The Gran proposed, and Dionant repeated the toast, clinking his glass and draining it as Damas did the same. Dionant's comm link crackled to life in his ear.

"Commander, commander are you alright?"

Raising a hand to activate the link inside his ear Dionant spoke, "Yes, Captain. Everything is fine in here."

"Copy that, Dag out." The comms link shut off, and Dionant took a sip of the now refilled glass. The liquid had a hint of alcohol to it, but nothing so intense that it would affect him.

The large Gran had now settled back behind his desk, sipping his own glass.

"What brings you to my moon, if not the war?"

"As I said, we were sent out here to die in an ambush, but we survived. We are looking to establish ourselves here."

Damas nodded, his three eyes trained intently on Dionant. "Yes, but why should I allow you to stay here?"

"We have not done any harm since our arrival. We do not plan to do any harm, either." Dionant knew that this was not strictly true, but he wished to have a good relationship with the governor of the moon, even if he was almost positive that that relationship would deteriorate.

"Dionant, you know how things are here in the Outer Rim. A large group of renegade clones will of course bring trouble to my moon. But I think what strife this may cause me could be.. offset… perhaps."

Dionant sighed. He should have seen this coming. While the Gran species was not known at all for selfishness or great ambition on an individual level Damas was obviously very different. He was away from their home planet or colony planets, something that was quite rare for a Gran. But Damas was different.

"How much?"

"Five thousand credits, monthly." Dionant contained his shock at this figure, it was an incredibly high price to be paying to simply be allowed to stay on the moon.

"Too much." Dionant was keeping it simple.

"Three thousand. Still monthly."

"Two."

"Two- five."

"Deal."

Dionant and the Gran shook hands again, agreeing on a 2,500 credit payment each month to go to Damas.

Dionant had not sensed any deceit in the Gran, and had no reason to disbelieve what the Gran had said about him being the governor of the moon. As governor he would have at least a suitable defense force of probably up to several thousand troops that could be raised to defend the moon and the planet it orbited.

Standing from his seat as he finished his glass Dionant began to leave the now stuffy feeling room. As he passed the protocol droid who was still standing in the corner Damas called out.

"Jedi, wait!" Dionant turned, slightly angry that he was being referred to as a Jedi despite making it quite clear that he was no longer a part of the Order.

"Take this with you." Damas tossed a datachip through the air, which Dionant caught and quickly pocketed it. Dionant exited the room, and shortly after exited the ship. The clones were still all mostly gathered around the ship, with their weapons at the ready.

As he walked down the ramp and felt his boots hit the rich soil of the moon Dionant saw Captain Dag approaching, and started jogging at a slow pace, waving for the Captain to follow him. He could already see the Lieutenant's jogging towards them.

"It's a schedule of some sort." Captain Dag said.

Dionant and the clone commanders had immediately gone to one of the salvaged computers that had made it through the crash landing and had plugged the datachip in. It was not displaying a time table of dates, times, and locations. Not much other information was present.

One of the Lieutenants spoke up, "It looks like a freighter schedule. It says here that one of these ships will be not far from here in about a day's time."

"Well what does it mean?"

Dionant sighed slightly as he spoke, "The governor wants us to make payments to him, consider it our rent for staying here."

None of the clones looked too happy, but Captain Dag seemed to be deeper in thought than the others, who simply accepted the toll as inevitable.

"He's giving us a boost. Helping us, sort of, with making some credits to make the payments. He's giving us a mark."

"I think you're right, Captain. He intends for us to rob or hijack some of these shipments to be able to make our payments." Dionant said.

"Well don't we have some credits?" One of the other Lieutenants asked.

The now tired and somewhat weary ex- Jedi responded, "Yes, but only for a month and then we would have very little left over. We will be running out of food and supplies in less than two weeks and then we will need to purchase more. We will need more credits."

"But what would we do with the cargo after we stole it?"

"We shouldn't be stealing it at all!" Lieutenant Mako barked, voicing his loud and clear opinion on the matter.

"What other choice do we have, Mako?" This was Lieutenant Jet, offering a voice of reason.

Dionant voiced his opinion, "I agree with Jet. We have very few options in this situation. If we do not make our payments on time I'm sure that the governor will send his troops to us, and we could fight but what then? We have no means of escape or support and we can not take on an entire moon's defense force as we are right now."

"We could all get honest jobs in the town, but where does that get us? We're clone, not civvies. How are we supposed to get back at everyone who wronged us?" This was Lieutenant Flak, who had spoken earlier about having some credits already.

Now all of the commanders seemed to be onboard with the plan.

"It's still piracy."

"Yes, but what does that matter to us anymore? We're not bound by the laws of a corrupt Republic."

The group was now nodding, all voicing their agreement somewhat. Dionant and Captain Dag were both full heartedly onboard, and so were most of the Lieutenants, except for Lieutenant Mako who still seemed hesitant.

"Good. Now let's check the schedule. Lieutenant Flak, I need a report on the status of our starships, including the B-7. Lieutenant Mako, I need a report on our supplies, specifically munitions. Lieutenant Jet, Fox, Captain Dag, and myself will be planning the raid."

"This just about all the fuel we have left, Commander." The Clone who was refueling the Jedi starfighter warned Dionant.

"I know. Make sure it's spread equal among the ARC and the B-7." The Clone detached the fueling line, a rigged up pipe that lead from an unexploded fuel tank in the wreckage of the cruiser.

Dionant raised his hand to his ear and activated the comms link to the other pilots and the group of clones that would be serving as 'ground control' in a sort of way.

"Pilots sound off. Dionant here."

"Rico here. ARC Co-Pilot."

"Crasher here. ARC Pilot."

"Skipper here. ARC Gunner."

"Trooper CT- 1795 here. B-7 Pilot."

"Good. Everyone should know and understand the plan. We will be lifting off and making the jump to hyperspace within the next ten minutes. Only one target is within our fuel range, which is not a problem."

Dionant continued speaking, "The target should have no escort and should be lightly armed. It will be near a small moon where we may possibly be able to force it to land. Make sure to take out it's hyperspace drive immediately. Prepare for lift off shortly."

Within a few minutes the starships lifted off out of the moons atmosphere and were hurtling towards their target. When they arrived the plan was to immediately set upon the freighter and to disable it's escape capabilities. If they could do enough damage in a sustained manner then the starship would be forced to land. That was when the clones would strike, with Dionant leading the attack. Two extra troopers were hidden inside the B-7, with orders to engage the crew as soon as the starships landed. Dionant had given strict orders to avoid killing, which would be difficult using the starfighters.

"Alright men. Let's do this quick and lets do this clean. Remember no killing, we're just after the cargo. Force them to land, and take over the ship immediately."

The three ships engines hummed to life. The Eta-2 had been repaired and the ARC starfighter replacement part had been installed. The B-7 was already functioning. Rising into the sky and moving slowly at first into the blue sky above the thick forest and foliage around them. It had been tricky getting all of the starfighters to the main wreckage where the clones had set themselves up, but it had been done.

The engines flared as the three ships shot out of the atmosphere and into space, the moon getting smaller and smaller below them, and the planet that it orbited getting much much larger.

"All units make the jump to hyperspace, now!" Dionant gave the order and the three starships leapt into hyperspace, shooting forwards and watching the stars streak by. They were only in hyperspace for a moment before they jumped out and re-entered real space.

Before them was another light freighter, similar in size to the B-7.

"ARC 1, get the hyperdrive!" Dionant barked the order over the comms link between the ships.

The ARC starfighter, while slower, packed quite a punch. A few bolts blasted out of it's large laser cannons on the end of the wings, and slammed home onto the freighter. The pinpoint shots turned the hyperdrive into space debris without doing much other damage that would threaten the lives of the crew on board.

Dionant circled around the now stuck freighter, and raised the ship on a local comms channel.

"Bring the ship down on the asteroid." A large asteroid, large enough to be a very small moon if it happened to get pulled in any gravitational pull. was nearby. It had no atmosphere, but the clone armor was sealed and would be good in the atmosphere for a few minutes, and Dionant was himself in a sealed suit. It would be tricky moving the cargo from the freighter to the B-7 but it could be done.

The freighter began to move towards the asteroid as Dionant kept speaking, "We do not intend to hurt or kill. How many of you are on board?"

The static filled answer came a moment later, "Two."

Reaching out across the Force to verify this statement Dionant could only sense two beings inside the freighter.

"When you land jettison the cargo onto the asteroid and leave. We are letting you live, do not forget this."

Nothing in response came across the comm, but Dionant saw the freighter complying with his orders. Dionant was not sure how he felt about the feeling that came along with the people obeying his orders and following his lead. He was no longer just a pawn of the Republic or the Jedi Order. Instead he was his own entity, him along with his clone troopers. Shaking his head clear of these distracting thoughts for now Dionant turned his attention back to the freighter as the entire group of starships approached the asteroid. The freighter that Dionant and the clones were attacking was the first to touch down, and the B-7 followed it. Dionant in his Eta-2 and the ARC starfighter stayed patrolling above the freighter.

In just a few minutes time the freighter had done exactly as Dionant had said, and had gently jettisoned it's cargo. Dionant had discovered a cargo manifest on the datachip that Damas had given him and had been watching intently to be sure they got the entire shipment. The freighter took off from the asteroid surface, unhindered and undelayed by the clones and Dionant, and flew away at top speed. The ARC starfighter tailed the freighter. Six large crates were left behind, and the clones inside the B-7 rushed out and retrieved them.

Shortly after retrieving the crates Dionant received confirmation of the cargo from the B-7 and it's crew and called off the ARC that was tailing the freighter, and the entire group of starfighters prepared to return back to Plethea.

"All units prepare to make the hyperspace jump back to Plethea. Cargo is secured." Dionant broadcasted to the two other starships.

Flipping a switch in the cockpit and opening a comms link with the clones back on Plethea Dionant spoke again. "Mission a success, preparing to return. All cargo was secured, no lives lost."

"Copy that, Commander. HQ is ready to receive you."

As the three starships once again jumped into hyperspace and traveled for the brief few moments that it had taken to arrive at their destination Dionant reviewed what had happened. He and the clones had stolen a ships cargo, technically becoming pirates and breaking intergalactic laws. It had been so simple and it had been essentially necessary, in Dionant's mind.

Exiting hyperspace and maneuvering the starships back to the clearing and touching them down Dionant popped the cockpit of the Eta-2 starfighter and approached the B-7 as it touched down as well. A group of clones were cheering and clapping for the returned commander and clones.

Entering the B-7 and approaching the nearest crate as one of the clones saluted and spoke, "Sir, the cargo is all here. Six crates, each one containing two hundred kilograms of durasteel plating."

Dionant nodded. Durasteel plating would fetch a good price if they could find someone to take it, and Dionant was sure that it would not be a problem to find someone to buy stolen goods here in the Outer Rim territories. Perhaps even the governor himself would either know someone or tak the cargo itself as his payment. Dionant was not sure when Damas was coming to collect the payment, but he had a feeling that it would be sooner as opposed to later.

Captain Dag had already jogged up and entered the B-7 to stand alongside Dionant. The interior was slightly cramped with the two clones and the six large crates, but Dionant waved his hand and nodded, dismissing the two troopers. With a quick salute they were both on their way, rejoining their units to tell their new tale.

"Feels sort of dirty, doesn't it, commander?" Captain Dag said.

"A little bit. But it's what we have to do now isn't it. Clones aren't meant to work with their hands, they're meant to fight. And fight we will, Captain. I know we say it all the time, but we will take the fight to the Republic. Imagine that Captain, dozens of ships, under our command, under my command, all of them flying my colors and following my orders." Dionant went a bit starry eyed and began to daydream a little. His day dreams were becoming more and more violent, especially against the Republic, but it did not bother him. He knew he was in the right on this matter.

The Captain standing beside him even began to daydream a little bit. He dreamt of a day that the Clones were not simply the pawns of the Republic, disposable and expendable. They were living beings that had rights, and even though they were bred and created for warfare it was not right to keep them in bondage, fighting wars they had no stake in.

"I can see that, Commander, and I want it."

"I do too. Let's leave these crates here for now. We have issues to discuss with the Lieutenants."

Exiting the freighter that now technically belonged to Dionant the pair walked to the 'command center' or what was really just the communications display, sensor array display, and a few other machines and displays and computers, that had all been cobbled together to serve as the command post.

Dionant thought about the fact that he did now own his own starship. He had never really owned anything before, except perhaps his lightsaber, but now he had his own starship. Nothing was stopping him from flying out and exploring the most distant stars and planets with just his ship and his lightsaber. He was no longer bound by the Republic's laws or the Jedi Order's mandates. While it was true that if he broke the laws and was caught doing it he would face punishment it was unlikely that the regular police forces would be able to apprehend him. He was a Jedi Knight, well on his way to becoming a Jedi Sentinel. He was not quite sure how he would react and adapt to the fact that he was now in charge and in command of a hundred loyal beings.

Moving towards the functioning command center the Captain and the ex- Jedi talked about price estimates for the durasteel plates. Dionant did not know the current price of durasteel, and neither did the Captain.

Dionant spoke as he and the Captain approached the command center.

"The mission went off without a hitch, Lieutenants. We now are in possession of 1,200 kilograms of durasteel plating. Our monthly payments to the governor, Damas, are right now set at 2,500 credits each payment. This little robbery of ours should set us ahead for a few months, giving us time to get on our feet and sort out some more permanent measures. Where was that cave system located?"

Well thats Chapter 4. Dionant and the boys get crackin' on some piracy and doin' some illegal stuff. They didn't kill anyone this time, and it's unlikely in the near future that they will be cold bloodedly gunning down anyone who stands in their way. But at a certain point it is just much more profitable to kill the crew and take it all, sell the ship even. But that's a tangent.

I hope y'all all enjoyed the chapter, it took me a long time to write 5k words is pretty much a shit ton, at least to me.

Leave a comment with a review of what you think of this story so far, and where you think it's heading. Any feedback at all is welcome.

Stay tuned for the next chapter of The Fallen Jedi.

Also check out my other stories, most of them are Harry Potter fanfiction, but one of them is a Warhammer 40k fanfiction, if that's what you like.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello and welcome to Chapter 5 of The Fallen Jedi: Dionant Janan. As of right now I posted Chapter 4 yesterday evening. I haven't received any reviews or comments on the latest chapter, but I suppose that will come in time. This will be another 5,000 word chapter and will be a good chapter hopefully.

Let me know what you think about this chapter and the last one, too. I really appreciate the feedback as it motivates me to write more and write quicker.

Not an incredible amount of action this chapter, but lot's of setting up for future action. This chapter pretty much wrote itself compared to the last one. This was done in one single night as opposed to however many days the last one took to write. That being said I only worked on the last one for a grand total of a day or two devotedly.

Thanks for reading, I hope y'all are all enjoying the story so far. Check out my other stories as well.

"Two thousand per."

"I can't do two thousand each. One thousand." Dionant was back inside the little parts shop where he had purchased the ARC replacement part, and was haggling with the owner.

"These are state of the art mining droids. I will not go less than seventeen-fifty." It was a rather intense haggle, and had been going on for the past ten minutes.

"I can trade you. One hundred kilograms of durasteel plating for each droid."

The Bothan seemed slightly surprised, at least at the sudden introduction of a new factor in the proposed deal.

"One hundred and fifty kilograms each and you have a deal." This was a somewhat reasonable offer, or so Dionant thought. Glancing at the Captain next to him, who had forgone the clone armor for some typical human clothes. Dionant had also decided not to wear his Jedi leathers and had also opted for a more discreet looking outfit. Dressed as a Jedi and clones in full armor were bound to raise suspicions and interest, something that Dionant definitely wished to avoid.

Dionant reached his arm out and shook the Bothan's hand, agreeing to an exchange of one hundred and fifty kilograms of durasteel plating for each mining droid.

"We'll have to come back, the crates are in our B-7."

"B-7, you say?"

Dionant nodded, eying the Bothan carefully. His hand drifted ever closer to the hilt of his lightsaber that was hidden in his clothing. The Captain's hand drifted towards the concealed holster holding his blaster pistol. Captain Dag did not quite know why Dionant was reacting as such to what seemed like an honest question, but he figured that if his commander was alert then he should be alert and ready as well.

"Yes." Was Dionant's only answer.

"Funny, a local spacer got himself killed a few days ago and I hear a stranger flew off that night in his B-7. Then you show up with a B-7 full of, undoubtedly, stolen cargo."

The Bothan did not say this as a threat, merely showing Dionant that he had information and that he knew that Dionant was in possession of the spacer's B-7.

Dionant just gave the Bothan a look, again not threatening, but acknowledging the fact that the Bothan knew exactly what Dionant had done, and if he did not know for a fact then he could assume accurately. Dionant tossed a credit chip to the man as he and the Captain left the small parts shop and mounted their speederbikes.

Firing up the engines and repulsorlifts and zooming out onto the street Dionant and Captain Dag were soon out of the spaceport town and were making their way through the thick forest. More detailed sensor scans had given them more information and allowed them to plot a more accessible and easier route for the speederbikes to take through the forest.

The clone commanders and Dionant had had a long conversation the day before, after the successful cargo robbery, and had made some decisions. The cave system that had shown up on the preliminary scans was being investigated further by a squad of clones. More powerful and detailed scans were also being performed, and some had already yielded results. It had been decided, among the commanders, that the clones would take up residence inside and around the cave system.

The caves would be perfect for hiding the troops and their ships, and it would be possible for the clones to furnish and equip the caves with all the computers, machines, and everything that a base of operations would need. A few problems would need to be overcome, and these problems would take some time to deal with.

The cave system was large, and certain sections of it were near the surface, just a few meters down. A few of these caverns that were not very deep could have their ceilings blown out and replaced with massive blast doors to create a sort of hangar space in the cave's below. Other sections of the cave appeared to be large enough for barracks and all other amenities and necessities for a basic base of operations. But to clear out the rough cave system to an acceptable level would require more than just the clones and their available resources to create. And this was exactly why Dionant and Captain Dag were in the spaceport town trying to barter for mining droids and machines that would be necessary for their plans.

It was about half an hour before the duo made their way completely through the thick foliage and were back at the clearing with the wreckage. Dozens of clones were scattered around, many of them trying to salvage as much raw material from the crashed cruiser as possible. The clones could not simply leave the wreckage of a cruiser on the surface of some Outer Rim moon, even if they were stationed just a couple of kilometers away. The plan was to cut up the cruiser and salvage as much as possible to either sell or repurpose in the creation of the new base.

"Commander!" One of the Lieutenant's had jogged up to the pair as they parked their speederbikes.

"Report." Dionant requested.

"The cave system has been deemed suitable to be our base of operations."

"Good! Continue scrapping the cruiser. We're taking the B-7 and we'll have the droids and machines here in a few hours. Round up a few of the mech-clones to operate and supervise them while we're gone. Dismissed, Lieutenant." The Lieutenant saluted and jogged off, hand raised to his ear as he spoke on his commslink, assumedly gathering up some mech-clones and giving out Dionant's newest orders.

Captain Dag and Dionant moved three of the crates out of the B-7 between a combination of strength and the Force. With three remaining crates onboard the two set off in the B-7 freighter, heading directly towards the spaceport town.

Just a few hours later the B-7 touched back down in the clearing for the final time, it had taken a few trips but now four mining droids and six digging machines were at the clones disposal. The plan to clear out the caves would be enacted in the morning and a general buzz of excitement was in the air. The clones were excited to be making the first tangible steps of setting up a headquarters that would allow them to eventually strike back at the Republic.

Dionant had gone nearly straight to meditation after arriving back at the crash site for the day. He had a few tough decisions to make. As a group they had 3,000 credits left, 2,500 of which would be due in payment at an unknown time, 600 kilograms of durasteel plating, and a whole lot of salvaged metal from the wreckage. But it was time to make the decision as to what to do with the durasteel. It could either be used in conjunction with the salvaged metal to furnish the new headquarters that would be set up, or it could be sold and the credits used to make the 'rent' payment. It was a tough decision, and Dionant had decided to turn to the Force.

While it was a murky thing so far out into the Outer Rim the Force was still present and strong, and Dionant could glean just enough from it to get an idea of what to do. After a while he had decided that they would use the durasteel plating in the new headquarters along with the salvaged metal from the cruiser, and that the 3,000 credits would go to the rent payment and refueling the starfighters.

Going out and informing the Lieutenants and Captain Dag of this decision, Dionant decided that it would be a good time to get some rest. He had much more to think about, including the dwindling supplies, massive incoming expenses that would need to be paid soon, a distinct lack of credits and steady income, and an anger inside of him pointed directly towards the Jedi Order.

Waking up early the next morning, as usual, Dionant and the commanders gathered the clones. Most of them, with the exception of Lieutenant Flak and his platoon, would be moving out and heading towards the cave system a few kilometers away. They would be mapping the inside thoroughly and beginning to use the mining droids and machinery that Dionant and the Captain had acquired.

From as soon as the clones were on the move to their new destination the B-7 was in constant use ferrying the mining machinery and droids, massive amounts of salvaged metal, the durasteel plating, the munitions and food supplies, and any computers or machines that could be moved at that time.

Lieutenant Flak and his men were left behind as a garrison force of sorts, but under orders to continue scrapping the ship and anything useful off of it. The mech-clones believed that it might be possible to scrap the onboard generator from the wreckage, which could then be used to power the new headquarters. Dionant had encouraged this and had given orders that the extraction of the generator be handled with the utmost care as the cost of a new generator would be very hard to offset, especially among the coming costs of the rent payment being due and other expenses.

Dionant and the clones set off from the clearing and into the thick foliage of the forest, all wary of any predators that might attack. While none had been encountered on so far on the trips to and from the spaceport it was still very likely that the small moon had at least a few inhospitable inhabitants, whether they be sentient or not.

It was only an hour or so before the clones reached the entrance to the cave system, and found the squad of scouts who had already been dispatched before. They had scouted the area all around and had nothing extraneous to report, except that a river had been found about a kilometer further south from the cave system, and that all preliminary tests had shown it's water to be safe and drinkable.

The entrance to the cave system was rather large, which represented an opportunity to create a hangar space for starships directly in the front of the cave, without having to cave in or mine out any ceilings of the cave system yet.

"Fan out! Lieutenant Jet, designate a squad to stay here at the entrance and stand guard. Everyone else prepare to enter!" Dionant sent out his message over the comms link and within a few minutes a guard squad was designated and the clones were ready to move out.

Dionant ignited his golden yellow lightsaber as he began to move into the cave alongside the clones, who activated lights on their blasters. Each squad of clones had a small device that would send out a sonic 'ping' every few seconds that would read the results once this 'ping' returned to the device and would map out the interior of the cave system and report it back to the main device, which was going to be set up as soon as possible. It was similar to a sonar mapping instrument.

The clones and Dionant spread out, slowly and painstakingly searching the rather enormous cave system. It was common for them to have to squeeze through some very tight tunnels and even crawl and climb around many sections only for the cave to open up to massive caverns, all in pitch black darkness save for the flashlights and lightsaber. Before long the system began to branch off into many different tunnels and wings, probably after about three large caverns counting the first cavern that the cave opened into it began to branch off. These branches were what was being explored and mapped more thoroughly.

Dionant considered himself lucky with this find. The caves would be a perfect headquarters for what they needed, and they seemed ideal. Not very much water or inaccessible areas had been encountered so far and their comms had continued to work despite the cave system. This was good news.

After a few hours of exploration Dionant had decided to call of the clones for the day, and instead to have them regroup back in the first cavern. "All units cease exploration and return to the cave entrance. I repeat, all units return to cave entrance."

In a short manner all of the clones were back and Dionant hopped up on a small rock outcropping to speak to the group at large, his hologram being projected to Lieutenant Flak and his platoon back at the wreckage.

"We will make this our headquarters! It will soon serve as our base and our safe haven from which we can reach out and strike the Republic, from which we will conduct all of our activities. This is the beginning of something great, men, and you will all not only be witness to it, but you will play integral parts in it's unfolding. Have no fear and no doubts in your commanders and I for we have not forsaken you, as the Jedi have and as the Republic have done." The clones inside the cave gave a quick cheer and were heartened by Dionant's speech. Dionant himself was even somewhat inspired. His blood always rose when he would speak of the future like that and he liked it.

Stepping off of the rock and motioning for the three Lieutenants and the Captain to come to him Dionant had a conference with them.

"We need to start construction and excavation immediately."

"I agree, commander." This was the Captain, but all of the Lieutenants also nodded in agreement.

"Have the mech-clones begin immediately, except the ones working on extracting the generator. I want to split the men up and finish the salvage work and keep working on exploring the caves further. Report on our supplies left?"

Lieutenant Mako answered his question, "A week tops sir, two or three if we ration carefully. Water should not be a problem if this river the scouts reported is clean."

Dionant nodded. "Lieutenant Jet, and Fox you two and your platoons will be heading back to the wreckage to finish the salvaging. We need it done soon, no more than two more days. Gather your men and wait for us to leave. Dismissed, you two." The two Lieutenants saluted and jogged off to gather their troops. This left just Dionant, Captain Dag, and Lieutenant Mako.

"Lieutenant, have your men continue exploration of the cave, but also I want them to start laying down the salvaged metal and the durasteel plating on the cavern floor here in the entrance. The plan is to have this area serve as a hangar until we can excavate some of the interior. A large blast door will be put covering the entrance here, and several entrances will be added for personnel."

"Captain, you will be overseeing the operations here in the caves. I want all of the starships moved here immediately, except continue to use the B-7 as fit to move salvaged metal or supplies back and forth. I will, however, be needing the B-7 in the future, probably soon."

The Captain nodded and saluted alongside the Lieutenant, who did the same.

"Dismissed."

Dionant and Lieutenants Jet and Fox and their respective platoons set out into the forest, backtracking their previous route to reach the caves and found themselves back at the clearing within an hour or so. Dionant told the three Lieutenants there their orders to continue dismantling the ship of everything useful, a project which had been successful at both giving the clones some more resources to work with and also remove the wreckage that would need to be completely destroyed or hidden at some point. It would not do for someone to stumble upon the wreckage of a crashed Republic ship here on some backwoods moon in the Outer Rim.

Dionant himself would be returning to the Karthi spaceport on an extended mission of sorts. He was planning on doing some recon and information gathering about the moon they were on, Damas the governor, and essentially everything that he could. He would probably be in the spaceport for a few days and also intended to secure some fuel for refueling the nearly depleted fuel reserves in all of the starships.

Taking a speederbike once more through the thick foliage and undergrowth that seemed to be present everywhere on this moon Dionant sped towards the city.

Once again heading towards "Flak's Starship Repair" where he had purchased the ARC replacement part, and also the mining droids and machinery from, Dionant parked his speederbike in an alley and walked in. He was was more dressed as a simple spacer would be, but this time in addition to his hidden lightsaber Dionant had a DC-15s side arm blaster pistol on a holster on his hip. While being very proficient at lightsaber combat Dionant had also been trained to use many types of blasters, and was confident with his ability and aim.

The Bothan, Flak, was the first to speak. "You again? What do you need this time?"

"Yes, me again. And I'm here for information." Dionant had decided to be open and direct from the get-go with this conversation.

"And why would I give you any information? And why would you come to me?"

Dionant responded, "You're a Bothan, information is what you do. And information, like everything, has it's price."

Flak chuckled and gave a slight grin, "Two hundred credits and I'll tell you what you want to know, not here though. Follow me." The Bothan walked from behind the counter, flipping the glowing 'Open' sign to 'Closed' on the outside of the shop, and went through a door into an office type area. Nearly every surface was covered in some sort of part or mechanism for a starship, engine, droid, or any type of machine imaginable.

Dionant handed over a one hundred credit chip, "You'll get the other half when we're done."

Flak nodded, and put away the chip in his desk as he directed Dionant to sit across from him.

"What do you need to know?"

"Damas, tell me about him."

"Ah, you've met our governor. He's a Gran, obviously. He was appointed governor of the moon of Plethea by the ruling government on Tatis V down there. He's got a decent sized security force, and he'd be tough to take on. He's got quite the ruthless streak, for a Gran, or so I've heard."

Dionant nodded and was only slightly surprised when the Bothan asked a question of his own.

"You steal those durasteel plates?"

Dionant nodded again in response, "Is that going to be a problem?"

"Damas and his troops are the only law here on Plethea. As long as you don't bother them I'll keep taking any goods of your hands that I might be interested in."

"Good. Tell me...how would I go about finding more targets to hit?" Dionant paused a bit before asking this question, it was a bit more personal in a manner, and it also revealed Dionant's inexperience with criminality and the other side of the law. But Dionant figured he would need to establish some contacts if he was going to be a criminal now, hell, he would need contacts even if he wasn't involved in more criminal activities now.

Flak didn't seem perturbed by the question at all, and answered, "There's a Corellian man that likes to hang around the cantinas. He can put you into contact with a good slicer, for a price. I don't know his name, but he always wears a dark green synth leather jacket."

"Where does Tatis V stand with the Republic and the Separatists?"

"They've got enough of their own problems as is. I hear a group of rebels is rising up, intent on overthrowing the current government, a monarchy. They won't get much of anywhere with it, though."

"Why's that?" Dionant asked. If there was political turmoil on the planet that Plethea orbited it would be better to know now than have it come up as a surprise in the future.

"Just never works. The rebels never do it right, they always jump the gun and are unprepared to fight."

Dionant was rising from his seat as he intended to leave. "Thank you for the information, Flak. If I come across anything I think you could use I'll bring it by."

"I only pay half for stolen goods. Sometimes more if it's exceptional."

Dionant set the other hundred credit chip down on the small and grungy desk before he left, leaving the office and the starship repair shop both and retrieving his speederbike. He now had a different job to do, one which might prove a bit harder. He was going to find this Corellian man who could supposedly put him in contact with a slicer.

It was the third cantina that Dionant had searched before he found someone that met his mark. He was looking for a male Corellian wearing a dark green synth leather jacket, and he now had him in his sights. Ordering a drink from the bartender and receiving it before he went to sit down Dionant scoped out the place. It was fairly nondescript as far as spaceport bars went, and nothing seemed unusual or out of place. Dionant used the Force to do a quick scan and felt nothing wrong or off.

Drink in hand, and using the Force to sense around himself, Dionant approached the booth table the man was sitting at, all alone.

Setting the drink down as he entered the opposite side of the booth Dionant spoke first.

"I hear you can put me in contact with certain people."

The man looked up from his drink, brown eyes meeting Dionant's blue eyes. The shaggy dark hair of the Corellian nearly hid a thick rope of scar tissue than ran down the man's right side of his face in a crescent, narrowly missing the eye.

Dionant gave no reaction when he saw the thick scar.

"Maybe. What's it to you, and who are you anyway?"

Dionant tossed a credit chip onto the table, worth thirty credits, before answering. "Dionant Janan. And you are?"

The man chuckled over Dionant having approached him looking for help without even know his name, but answered anyway. "Kenth Russ, pleasure to meet you. You'll have to do better than that, anyway." Kenth and Dionant shook hands over the table.

Suddenly a flash in the Force gave Dionant a split second warning, and he turned in the booth as his hand shot to his blaster pistol.

As Dionant was turning away from Kenth a Rodian man with a blaster pistol of his own raised the pistol and was walking directly towards Kenth. "You Corellian bastard! Die!" But before the Rodian could squeeze his trigger Dionant had already drawn and fired his own blaster, acting nearly purely on instinct. The Rodian fell backwards, blaster clattering across the cantina floor as Kenth drew his own pistol, a quick reaction, but a reaction that would have been too slow had Dionant not been there.

Kenth turned to face Dionant, a look of slight shock or something very near to it on his face. His reaction time had been incredibly fast, almost too fast. Kenth, of course, did not know that Dionant had received a jolting warning from the Force and instant before the Rodian drew his pistol.

"Time to go, then." Kenth said as he swept up the credit chip Dionant had tossed onto the table and drained his drink. He was making his way to the door, hand firmly on the handle of his own blaster pistol, when Dionant caught up with him.

Ignoring a shout from the bartender as to who was going to be cleaning up the mess Dionant followed Kenth outside the cantina, and spoke. "We aren't done yet."

Kenth turned and sighed, obviously slightly shaken up about nearly being shot and killed. Kenth spoke as he tossed a small datachip in the air, "I guess I do owe you, huh? Take this, tell him that Kenth referred you."

Dionant caught the chip and looked back one more time at the cantina. He had just killed a sentient being who had done no wrong to him. Admittedly the Rodian had drew a weapon and had intended to kill Kenth, but what did that matter? Kenth was probably a criminal too, and it was not exactly as if the galaxy would be a worse place with his death.

Not to mention that killing went against everything he had learned in the Jedi Order. But Dionant supposed he had already killed for less, killing in cold blood for just 3,000 credits and a small starship a few nights before. But this marked the second time he had killed in a short period of time, neither one of them completely or really that much at all justifiable. It made Dionant wonder as to what he was becoming.

Dionant had rented a room from a small inn that had a 'vacancy' sign out front for a few credits, and he was currently meditating. He was not meditating over the Rodian he had just killed, he was simply scanning the surrounding neighborhood for any bad presence in the Force. Sensing none he rose up from his seated position on the floor and set his long range communicator on the desk. Drawing his hood as he plugged in the datachip he pressed a few buttons and keys on the device, which soon whirred to life.

In a moment or two a blueish hologram hopped to life in front of him. The figure was somewhat hard to see, but it looked like a human male from what Dionant could decipher.

The hologram figure spoke first, "Who are you?"

Dionant responded simply, "That doesn't matter. Kenth referred me."

The hologram nodded and spoke, "Ah. The name's Drax then. So you need a slicer."

It was Dionants turn to nod.

"Doesn't come too cheap. What do you need?"

"Ship schedules and cargo manifests for the Tharin Sector and surrounding sectors."

"I can do that. For a fee, of course. 1,000 credits per info batch. Non-negotiable. You came to me, so I know you need a slicer."

Dionant sighed. Drax had the upper hand in the negotiations and he was well aware of that fact. Dionant did need the information and it seemed he would have no choice, but to pay the price attached with it in full.

"Deal."

"Good. I'm sending the account information of the account you can wire the credits to straight to the comms device, it should copy directly to the datachip. I'll have a batch in three days, you'll receive it after I receive payment confirmation."

It certainly seemed to Dionant that Drax knew what he was doing and had experience with this before, which was hopefully a good indicator.

Drax spoke again, "For another fee I can monitor HoloNet and communications traffic in those sectors, perhaps give you a bit of forewarning if you're pissing off the wrong people too often."

"No, just information will suffice for now."

The hologram shut down and deactivated, leaving Dionant alone in his small room. Dionant once again moved to the floor and began to meditate. If he could properly fall into a trance he would be able to get a better scan of the entire Karthi spaceport using the Force.

Dionant stayed in the Karthi Spaceport another day and a half after arriving, gathering smaller but still potentially useful bits of information during his stay. But now Dionant was within two minutes journey on the speederbike from the crash site and was barrelling forward as quickly and cautiously as possible.

During his time he had managed to secure enough fuel to refill the starships and then have a little bit left over for a surplus stockpile, but he would need the B-7 to pick it up from Flak's, where it was waiting. He had spent quite a few credits on his trip, between paying for the room where he had stayed, food, both of which were not very expensive, and also for fuel and information, both of which had cost him quite a bit. By his count the credit total was now hovering at about 1,900, which was somewhat far below what it needed to be.

Dionant arrived back at the crash site where Lieutenants Jet, Fox, and Mako greeted him. They had been making very steady progress with dismantling the cruiser, and the final stages of extracting the generator were about to take place. The generator was intact and functioning, but would require the B-7 to move it into the cave system.

While the clones were finishing extracting the generator Dionant took the B-7, which had just returned from making another run to the cave system, and flew to the spaceport and retrieved the fuel. After picking up the fuel he went to the cave system, sending a warning ahead over the comms to the Captain there. After unloading the fuel and doing a very brief inspection of the progress made in the opening cavern Dionant took the B-7 back to the clearing, where the generator now sat, finally freed from it's stuck position inside the wreckage of the cruiser, which was now down to it's barest skeleton. Piles and piles of salvaged metal and computers were laid out in the clearing and the job was nearly complete.

Using the Force and with the help of several mech-clones Dionant got the generator safely inside the B-7 and once again flew back to the cave system, where he also helped unload it. The first cavern, where the cave opened up into, was nearly completely plated on the floor, and parts of the walls were done. The cavern went back fairly far, several dozen meters at least and was at least a dozen meters high. Dionant once again took the B-7 back to the original crash site, and handed over command to CT Rico, one of the pilots who had flown in their little cargo heist. He assumed command of ferrying the near constant shipment of salvaged materials from the crash site to the cave system.

As Dionant took a moments break after rushing around and back and forth for what seemed like hours, and in fact was multiple hours, Lieutenant Jet approached him.

"Sir, salvage should be done within six more hours. It'll take the B-7 another six after that to finish moving everything, that is if we run it non-stop."

"Run it non-stop. We need to get everything moved over. Have as many mech-clones as you can spare sent over to the cave system and start wiring up the generator. I want the scanner arrays, and communication arrays up as soon as possible. Also, tell Lieutenant Mako I would like a full report on everything salvaged from the cruiser within the next twelve hours. Tell Lieutenant Fox that I want this clearing looking like we were never here once we finish the cruiser."

"Yes, sir!" Lieutenant Jet snapped a salute and jogged off.

Dionant thought for a moment about how militarized the clones were, even still now despite having severed ties with the Republic and no longer being a part of the Grand Army. But Dionant supposed that that was just how they were born, bred, and trained.

The comms link in his ear suddenly beeped to life and he raised a hand to activate it. It was Captain Dag, from the cave system.

"Captain? What do you need?"

"Generator is nearly in place, sir. We should have power within four hours. Starships are all refueled and the surplus fuel is stored in the cave."

"Good job, Captain. Have a few clones on standby to prep the starships. We have some freighters to hit." Dionant sighed. He realized that he was quickly being sucked deeper and deeper into the criminal world, and was dragging the clones along with him. But if that was how it had to be done then that was how it had to be done.

Captain Dag responded before he cut off the comms, "Yes, sir!"

Well that was the 5th chapter of The Fallen Jedi: Dionant Janan. The last chapter hasn't had any reviews or stuff yet, but I'm not expecting any for a little bit. The views have gone up massively, which is great.

I know this chapter didn't have too much action except a very brief and one sided shootout in the cantina. The coming few chapters will have some more. This was more to set up for Dionant and the clones.

Read and Review! Let me know what y'all all think of my story.


	6. Chapter 6

Hello once again everybody. Whoever it was who gave the 'Guest' review, thank you very much. I was planning on doing something similar. This chapter should have some more action than the last one. Expect some firefights and good old fashioned lightsaber slashing.

Let me know what y'all think about this chapter, and the last few. Within the next 7 days I hope this story hits over 40k words. After that I hope this gets more views, but that was exactly what I thought would happen once I hit 20k words. It might not happen until I hit 60 or 100k words, which would be tougher for me.

Once again I missed when I wanted to have this story finished by. This authors note will seem really jumbled and disorganized, but I don't mind it like that. I just sort of add more to it as time goes by.

It's taken me a bit (whole lot) longer to write this than I thought it would. I've been so damn busy the past three or so days it's been insane. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this up and publish it tonight, but I'm not sure.

Let me know what y'all think about this chapter, and feel free to leave constructive criticism. Lots of conflict and change that takes place here. I might be taking the story in a somewhat different direction. I'm not sure yet.

Blaster bolts slammed into the meagre cover that Dionant and his two clone trooper companions had managed to hide behind. What had supposed to be a simple raid on a storage warehouse had turned into a firefight with security forces.

Dionant and the two clones were currently on the planet Saleucami, a rather barren desert planet. The plan had been to raid the warehouse and steal the cargo before the starship could take off. The plan had gone wrong almost from the beginning, Dionant had landed the B-7 about a quarter mile away, and they had marched to the warehouse from there. The warehouse was located among a small village, a few dozen buildings or so. It was mainly a trading outpost along one of the roads that crisscrossed the desert, situated on a small oasis.

The raid was supposed to be simple, Dionant and his troops would break into the warehouse in the dead of night, stun any guards they saw and would be relieving the warehouse of about one metric ton of finished goods that the warehouse was storing. These goods were slated for export in two days time. This was the last bit of useful intel that Dionant and the clones had been able to glean from the datachip that Damas had given him.

It had proven too difficult or too much of an ordeal to force a landing in space to then steal the cargo. It would be much easier to steal the cargo before it ever went off-world. Dionant knew that he would not be able to keep every job or mission completely clean forever but he had hoped to have a few more go without killing before anything went wrong. But it seemed that was not to be.

Another bolt slammed into the cover that Dionant was hiding behind and Dionant squeezed off a few bolts in return from his DC-15s. It seemed that the security troops would not be giving up. Dionant and the clones had not yet managed to even steal the goods, but Dionant was determined to finish the job.

"Cover me!" Dionant yelled to the nearest clone to him, CT-9843, and saw the clone stand from behind his cover and raise his DC-15A. The clone started sending shots downrange towards the half dozen or so security troops who were blasting back with their pistols.

This distraction gave Dionant an opportunity to dash out from behind the small barrier that he had been taking cover behind and dashed to a nearby wall. This gave him a great angle on the security troops, allowing him to switch the pistol from shooting deadly plasma bolts to shooting a stunning blast. Dionant used this to knock two of the six guards out before the other four turned and showered his position with blaster bolts. This time Dionant was serving as the distraction, allowing the two clone troopers to pick off the other four with their own stunning blasts.

"Trooper! Get the ship, bring it here. We'll have the cargo ready."

One of the two troopers broke away and ran, quickly disappearing into the inky night, white armor shining.

"Come quick, we've got to get inside there. Should be six crates full of airspeeder engine parts waiting for us. Secure the security troops." The clone trooper nodded and used his rifle to blast off the handle on the door, and both of them entered.

Both Dionant and the clone trooper spread out, Dionant searching for the correctly labeled crates as the clone trooper dragged the unconscious security forces. After a few minutes of searching the dark warehouse Dionant located the crates. Using a small repulsorlift dolly type device the pair moved all six of the crates to the small outdoor loading dock.

Within a few minutes, just as the security guards were beginning to stir and groan themselves back into the waking world, the clone trooper returned flying the B-7 low and quick, landing in the loading dock. It was a matter of moments before the crates were all loaded up and secure on the B-7 and Dionant took the helm, piloting the ship away from the small town and into the atmosphere. Dionant and the two clones left the arid, desert planet behind and were soon cruising through space. The former Jedi Knight was preparing to make the jump to hyperspace when one of the troopers called out from the back of the freighter, "Commander, you should come see this!"

Flipping a few switches and turning down the engines Dionant let the ship run by itself with the navcomputer handling it while he walked to the back.

The two troopers were standing by one of the crates, one of them holding the lid to the crate and the other trooper holding a few shiny engine pieces. "What is it, troopers?"

"It's what's under the parts, sir. I think it's, uh, spice, sir."

Looking over the edge of the crate and pushing a few of the parts back it became exceedingly obvious that beneath a layer or two of engine parts dozens of packages of spice were present.

"Shit." was all that came to mind for Dionant. It was not good that what was supposed to be engine parts was spice, even though the spice was more valuable. He had not stopped to think why six security guards had been posted outside of a warehouse and why they had fought so hard to protect it. It was such a small town it made no sense that six security guards would be necessary to guard a simple warehouse.

Sifting through the parts, tossing a few onto the ground as he grabbed and began to count the spice packages.

"We'll have pissed someone off with this, right Commander?" One of the clones spoke.

"Undoubtedly. This is a large amount of spice and I'm sure whoever it belongs to will be wanting it back."

Dionant dropped the package of spice in his hand as he spoke again, "Set it all back in the crate and set the lid back on. We'll deal with this once we get back to Plethea."

The clones saluted and got to work as Dionant went back to the cockpit and went to preparing to jump to hyperspace. He raised the main clone force back on Plethea on the comms.

"There's a lot of spice here, Commander." Captain Dag was sifting through one of the crates of spice packages. The commanders were all gathered around the six crates of spice. They were inside the mouth of the cave that groups of clones were still working on clearing out and cleaning up. A group of mech-clones were working hard to rig up the power generator from the cruiser in order to get a light system working.

Dionant said, "I'd say at least 600 kilos of spice here." One of the Lieutenants gave a whistle.

"And that's valuable stuff. We really robbed someone blind on this one."

"We sure did. But now we have a few issues to deal with. I am positive that whoever we stole this from will want it back. And I am also sure that if we try to sell all of this at once that word will get back to it's rightful owner."

"Sir, are we just spice dealers now?"

"No, Lieutenant, we are simply taking the opportunity in front of us. This load of spice could solve all of our credit problems for a long while."

The Lieutenants and Captain Dag all nodded, it was still somewhat tough for them to disregard their training and nature to uphold and serve the Republic and it's laws, but they were making progress in breaking down their training.

"I want the spice weighed and separated from the airspeeder parts. I want the work doubled on the cave, and I want to ramp up security. Set guard shifts and keep everyone vigilant. We've made some enemies today and it's only a matter of time before they find us here."

The Lieutenants and the Captain saluted Dionant as he walked away from the crude command center, and made his way through the cave. The starships had been parked inside the cave that was quickly being converted into a hangar space. Picking a tunnel at random Dionant went down it, and came across another cavernous area with clones working by flashlight. Pressing forward and moving deeper into the cave Dionant eventually found a small alcove that allowed him space to meditate.

Closing his eyes and controlling his breath Dionant reached out with the Force. He could feel the presence of all of the clones scurrying around the caves, working to lay down metal flooring or electrical grids.

It was all coming together for Dionant. The clones were his army and he was the general. And he would soon turn this army on the Republic at large. The Jedi Order would pay as well for sending him to his death along with his comrades.

Dionant turned his mind to larger issues than what still remained in the future. What was he supposed to do with 600 kilos of spice? He did not know any way to sell it and he doubted that Flak would take it. Flak would probably take the airspeeder parts for a decent price, but the spice was still a large problem.

He was sure that whoever owned it would be coming to get it and he was also worried about exactly how much evidence that they had left at the scene. Dionant cursed. He should have been more observant and more careful.

Settling in for a long bout of meditation Dionant sighed. The Force was more in turmoil and shrouded in confusion than he had ever felt in his life. It was a confusing time to be a Force user and it was also a dangerous time. Word from the town was that the Separatists were gaining ground, especially in the Outer Rim. The Republic was being pushed back farther and farther, but Dionant was sure that the Republic would bounce back soon. It was almost inconceivable that such a large and expansive creation as the Galactic Republic could fail, but it certainly seemed like the Separatists would give it a go.

**One week later**

The clones were all away, for the most part, from the base when the first explosion went off. A day or so prior the food rations had essentially run out and it had been decided that the clones would be dispatched nearly completely for a full day to hunt and scavenge for food to replenish the food stocks. This resulted in only a small force of only a single squad being left behind with Dionant to guard the cave. Dionant was once again meditating a little farther back in the cave when he heard the explosion.

Sprinting out from the tunnel he had been in Dionant could hear blasters hissing and firing off bolts. Running in to the first cavern as he ignited his golden lightsaber Dionant looked around as his eyes adjusted. Almost immediately he was forced to block a yellow blaster bolt, deflecting it back to exactly where it had come from.

He could see two clones dead already, and the rest were taking shots when they could from behind cover.

"Sergeant! Report!"

"Heard an explosion, we came running. Nothing in here blown up though. We can't tell who's attacking."

More yellow bolts slammed into the metal flooring, "Sergeant, raise Captain Dag on the comms."

"Can't, sir. Comms are being jammed, there's nothing we can do."

Another clone stumbled backwards, a scorch mark burned into the clone's helmet denoting a deadly headshot.

Another explosion went off, this time much closer. Dionant was nearly knocked to the ground, and took the opportunity to dash from his pretty exposed position to some cover, firing his blaster with one hand and keeping his lightsaber ready with the other.

A loud, female voice suddenly cut through the noise of the blaster and the echoes of the explosion that still resonated through the cave system. "Where's the damn spice?" The voice belonged to a figure who Dionant now saw standing up, and as the smoke cleared he got a better look at her.

She held a pistol in each hand, still raised but not firing at the moment. She wore traditional Mandalorian armor and helmet, and she stood tall despite her short frame. She did not remove her helmet, but again spoke, "I know the spice is here, we don't need to die over this."

"You're not getting the spice, you've killed my comrades. The spice isn't even here. You don't have to die over this."

The woman laughed, her blaster's still trained on Dionant as they had a short and tense conversation.

"I'll die if I don't come back with the spice. Where is it?"

She fired her pistol, sending a warning shot that slammed into the durasteel crate that one of the clones was sheltering behind. It did no damage, but raised the already tense atmosphere inside the cave to a little higher level. The clones were getting antsy and the standoff was becoming a bit too much.

The woman sighed, barely audible from Dionant's position. She kept her blasters raised as she seemed to tilt backwards from her heels and jump into the air. The jetpack on her back roared to life, shooting powerful flames and propelling her out of the cave. She shot up into the air and was soon lost inside the thick foliage.

"After her. Stay close to me."

Dionant and the clones rushed out of the cave and followed after the mysterious woman as best they could through the near jungle terrain. Within minutes it was clear that she was gone and would not be found by the single squad of clone troopers.

"Get back to the hangar. We'll give a burial for the fallen." The clone sergeant nodded, and the mood went from adrenaline filled and tense to much more somber and subdued. It was the first time that clones had fallen as a result of something Dionant and the commanders had done.

Dionant raised the larger group of clones who were still out foraging on the comms and informed them to be on the lookout for a female wearing Mandalorian armor who would have no qualms with killing. He also informed the Captain and the Lieutenants out foraging of the three clone deaths.

Dionant sighed as they returned to the cave area and began to prepare the bodies of the clones for a funeral. The clones would be buried among the scattered graves that held the clones who had died in the crash landing on the planet.

The laden airspeeder barely hovered above the ground. Dionant and Lieutenant Mako had been to the spaceport and had purchased supplies, mainly food. It had been a large purchase and had nearly wiped out the surplus food supply of the spaceport. Of the credits only a few hundred were left after purchasing the food, but with the sale of the airspeeder engine parts the total amount of credits ballooned up to just about 2,500. Which was exactly where it needed to be, because Dionant knew that Damas would be coming soon to collect his payment.

The airspeeder was loaned on trust from Flak, the Bothan who fenced any mechanical or similar stolen goods for the clones. Dionant wanted at least a pair of airspeeders for the clones, but he knew that it would be impossible to buy any right then.

It was two days after the burial and the funeral for the three clone troopers that the governor arrived. The rent payment went off smoothly, with Dionant making another toast with the Gran to their partnership of sorts. The Gran did not bring up any of the illicit activities that Dionant had been involved in as of late. It had been slightly jarring to some of the clones who now realized that they were still in harms way.

Dionant was and had been tracking down the woman who had attacked and killed the clones. Using the Force he had been able to track her down to a separate cave system that was about 10 kilometers North of the original clearing where the cruiser had crashed. And it was now that he was closing in on this presence he could feel in the Force.

He whipped his speederbike around a sharp turn, nearly careening into a large tree, and killed the engine. Parking the speederbike, still a few kilometers away, and beginning to walk Dionant kept his mind and senses completely open to the Force and was attempting to dial down a more exact position on the woman. He could sense that she was right now in the forest, farther away from him and more to the north, but he could also sense that she had spent much time in the cave system.

Walking the last kilometer and being as silent as he could through the thick forest Dionant slipped into the cave, and saw a small homebase/ command area that had been set up. It was a small operation, and it seemed like it was only for the one woman.

Sitting down in a small camp chair as he thumbed over his lightsaber hilt and reached out with the Force. He could sense the woman coming closer and closer to the cave. It was only a few minutes until the woman was at the mouth of the cave. Her footsteps could be heard echoing off the walls of the cave.

"You tracked me all the way from Saleucami to here. You're boss must want that spice back quite badly."

The woman jumped, startled from the sudden introduction of Dionant, and raised her pistols.

Dionant lit his lightsaber and stood up from the small chair, holding it ready but not attacking. "We don't have to fight over this. We can work something out."

The woman scoffed as she answered, "Work something out? I don't think so. If I don't come back with the spice then I'm as good as dead."

"You said that, but I need to keep that spice. I had an idea that might suit us both."

The woman fired one of her pistols, sending a golden blast of plasma hurtling towards Dionant, who deflected the plasma with his own golden lightsaber.

"Hear me out. I'm going to put away my weapon and I trust you will do the same. Remember that if you kill me that you will never find the spice." Dionant was playing a dangerous game, especially in trusting this woman who was undoubtedly a bounty hunter.

The lightsaber whooshed as it descended back into the hilt, the blade disengaging. It was a tense and stressful moment as Dionant clipped his saber to his belt and waited for the woman to lower her pistols. After a moment she holstered both pistols again.

Sitting down on the camp chair that Dionant had occupied a moment earlier the woman removed her helmet as she sighed. Long blonde hair fell around her face as the helmet was removed and was placed on the cave floor. A pretty face, marred slightly with a few scars, but with strikingly blue eyes met his own blue eyes.

"What's the idea?" She asked. Dionant had decided to sit cross-legged on the cave ground opposite the camp chair.

"We could work together. Once the spice is sold we could work something out."

The woman scoffed again, "I would be killed before that could ever happen. Besides, I killed three of your clones. Why the hell do you have clones, anyway? I didn't think the Republic and the Jedi were in the spice dealing business."

"We aren't part of the Republic any longer, and I have disavowed the Jedi Order. They forsook us and they will pay for it."

The woman gave a weird look to Dionant. "Not part of the Republic, huh? So you could use someone like me… Introduce you to the big time life of crime here on the Outer Rim."

Dionant nodded, as oversimplified as it was when stated like that it was still essentially true.

"The spice would give us more than enough credits to let you disappear and pay off your boss."

"So what would I do? What does 'work something out' mean? How do I know you won't betray me? I killed three of your men."

"I can smooth that out with the other clones. Many of them will not like it at all."

The woman gave a sarcastic laugh. "You're talking like we've already made a deal."

"I think we have, and I think you know it."

The woman gave a nod, and sighed again. "I guess you're right. I can die trying to steal the spice back from clones bred to be killers, or I can die when I go back empty-handed."

"Or you can work with me." Dionant gave a the still-unnamed bounty hunter woman a smile, a genuine smile that showed he was happy with the accordance they came to and that no more lives had to be lost over a meaningless conflict. Sure Dionant and his clones had stolen a massive amount of spice from someone but Dionant had no personal qualms with the bounty hunter, except that she killed three of his clones. But that issue would be dealt with, and Dionant was unsure of how the clones would react.

Dionant leaned forward and stretched out his hand to officially introduce himself to the bounty hunter woman, "Dionant Janan."

She met his hand with her own and responded, "Aisha Corrend, bounty hunter."

"I'm going to get Captain Dag up here. We'll need his input on introducing you to the group."

Aisha nodded, and got up. She moved over to a small, portable cabinet, and fixed a drink for herself and Dionant, passing his to him.

Raising her glass and speaking Aisha said, "To a new partnership, may it be profitable." Dionant nodded and clinked his glass to hers, and drained it as he did. The clear liquid burned as it went down his throat and into his system.

Activating the comm link and requesting that Captain Dag come up, and relaying some coordinates that were to a location nearby Dionant sat back down on the cave floor and began to chat with the bounty hunter.

**Cave System, Clone Base**

Three clone troopers, one a sergeant and the other two regular rank and file soldiers, were searching through the new base of operations/ cave/ makeshift hangar. They were all looking for their commanding officer, Lieutenant Jet. Between the three of them, and even a few more clones from other platoons and squads had been speaking and agreeing about how they disagreed with and did not like how Dionant was leading the clones, and especially their new life of crime.

It did, after all, go completely against the very thing that the clones had been bred, engineered, and created for. They were created as a Grand Army of the Republic, to replace the old and incompetent Army with a massive injection of skilled troops that were loyal and brave to a fault.

Which was exactly where these clones had problems. While some of the others had embraced the changes Dionant had made and had really taken to the individualism that a life of crime came with, instead of being just another number for the Republic to order around until they died in battle.

The three clones found their Lieutenant, who was cleaning and wiping down his blaster and armor inside one of the deeper tunnels in the cave.

"Sergeant Crusher, CT-1867 and CT- 4626. Something to report?" The Clones saluted as the Sergeant, Sergeant Crusher, began to speak.

"Sir, some of the boys and I were, uh, talking." The Sergeant faded off here, now beginning to wonder about the ramifications of what they were about to discuss. If they had still been functioning soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic then telling their commanding officer of their unrest and serious discontent with the decisions of their Jedi General could be considered treason. But they were no longer part of the Grand Army, and they were embroiled right in the middle of a very unique situation.

"Yes, sergeant, what is it?" The Lieutenant did not give any hints that he knew what Crusher and the other clones wanted to speak about.

"It's about Commander Dionant, sir." When he heard this the Lieutenant looked around, and saw no one nearby except the three clones in front of him.

"Sit. What about the Commander?"

"Well, we don't like what he's doing. He's making us turn into criminals, making us stand against what we were bred to defend and protect. Every day gets worse and worse. First becoming pirates and now selling spice?"

Lieutenant Jet sighed and spoke as he removed his helmet and placed it on his knee, "I know, Sergeant. I don't like it either."

"But sir, what I don't understand is why we let it happen? He's a criminal and isn't it our job to uphold the Republic."

"Remember that he is also a Jedi Knight, Sergeant." The Lieutenant responded with.

"But he's not! He forsake the vows and the Order! He's just a criminal with a lightsaber now, sir!"

The Lieutenant stopped to think this over for a moment, "And we were never decommisioned by the Chancellor. We are still soldiers of the Grand Army, no matter how much the Commander preaches for the destruction of the Republic and Jedi Order."

Standing up, his eyes alight with passion and a fire that none had seen in weeks, Lieutenant Jet put his helmet back on and grabbed his blaster. "Get me a report on total number of sympathetic clones, and have them ready for anything at anytime. We have a job to do, and it is our duty to see it through. Dismissed."

The three clones jogged off through the tunnel, leaving the Lieutenant behind who followed them a few minutes later. All four of the Republic-loyalist clones managed to miss the crouched and hidden figure of another clone trooper in the tunnel on their way out. A few moments after the four had left the tunnel the hidden trooper stood and checked, seeing it was all clear he himself jogged out of the tunnel. He had his own job to do and preparations to make.

**Bounty Hunter Cave System**

"Captain, I've made contact with the bounty hunter."

The clone captain looked up as he dismounted the speederbike. "Is she dead?" His voice held passion and anger. The duo began walking away from the speederbike and heading into the forest.

"No, she's not and she will not be killed by us." Dionant knew that the captain would take this hard. The bounty hunter had after all killed three of his troopers.

The captain stopped in his tracks. "I'll kill her myself."

"No you won't, Dag. She can help us much more alive than dead. Don't you want to see the Republic burn for betraying you?"

The captain nearly shouted, "Not as much as I want her dead!"

"The Republic got hundreds of your brothers killed! Remember Geonosis? Dozens dead, and remember our little mission? Dozens more dead and all because of the Republic and the Jedi Order. Can't you see that?"

"She killed three of our troopers. She has to pay for it."

"And how do you suppose I do that?" The slightly muffled and distorted voice of Aisha could be heard through her helmet. She stepped out from behind one of the trees, wearing her full Mandalorian armor.

In a flash the Captain had both of his blaster pistols raised and trained on her. At the same moment she drew hers and the duo locked eyes. Dionant was left standing by, watching as his most loyal supporter and a potentially massively helpful ally trained their guns on each other. It was a tense moment and Dionant could sense that either one was mere seconds away from preemptively blasting the other away.

Raising his hand in a quick and jerking motion all four blaster pistols were ripped out of the duo's grips by the Force and flew to Dionant, who deposited them on the ground. "We are going to do this civilly. Dag, I know you don't like this and I know you want retribution. What do you want?"

The clone captain, who Dionant had always known to be strong and stalwart, nearly broke down. He sighed as he pressed back into the trunk of a tree and slid down it's length, essentially collapsing. "I want freedom. All my life I've been told what to do and how to do it. But now I want freedom more than anything."

"You have freedom, Captain. You are free to do whatever you choose."

"Then I don't want just freedom. I want freedom and equality. I want you and I to be equals. No more orders and no more missions. I don't want to be Captain anymore. I just want to find myself. " The longing passion for true freedom was clear in his voice and the pure emotion was etched onto the clone's face. He desired nothing more than to be an individual amongst hundreds of thousands of identical beings all doing the same thing and serving the same purpose.

"Done, Dag. No more orders, no more missions. You and I will be equals, and so will any clone who stays onboard with us, you will stay, I presume?" Dionant was offering Dagger something quite powerful. He was cutting the tie between the two of General and Captain and instead was introducing a tie that was just man to man. A relationship based off of friendship instead of duty.

Dagger looked up from his sunken position, meeting Dionant in the eyes. "I will stay on board with you if you stay on board with me. I won't be ordered around anymore. Equals only."

"Equals only." Dionant held a hand out to help Dagger up, who accepted it and rose from the forest floor. His gaze turned behind Dionant as he looked at the bounty hunter still standing there. She had not made a move to recover her blasters while the two had talked.

"Aisha is going to be joining our team, and I hope you can accept that."

"You killed three of my men." Dag accused her. She simply nodded.

"I don't trust you. Not yet. But I guess I can work with you, for now." It seemed to take a good bit of effort on Dag's part to give in to this, but it showed a lot of his character. He was willing to give up on seeking immediate retribution for his dead troopers and see the bigger picture. To see that Aisha could give Dionant and himself the boost they needed to strike back at the Republic.

"Come on, you two, we need to get back to the base. I suspect the other clones will not be as accepting as you were. Maybe they would like their own chance for freedom." And with that the trio sent off to return to the base of the clones.

Dagger and Dionant arrived back at the base to a very tense and unexpected situation. Aisha had remained hidden inside the forest for the time being, until she received the correct comm signal to come out.

Three large groups of clones were standing and yelling at each other, each one led by one of the four Lieutenant's. But it appeared that the crowd behind each Lieutenant was not made up of their platoon, but instead a combination of all four platoons made up each crowd. One crowd was about double the size of the other two and had two Lieutenants standing in it's midst.

"It's our duty! We were created to serve the Republic!"

"Damn the Republic! I want to be free!"

"The Chancellor betrayed us! He has to pay!"

It seemed that the three groups were arguing over just what they wanted to do with themselves. It was not an easy question to answer, but Dionant knew that this confrontation had been building for a while. It was unreasonable to think that all four platoons of clones would simply follow his orders and rule for no reason indefinitely, especially when he began dabbling in rather criminal pursuits.

Dionant and Dagger walked directly into the center of the shouting and yelling chaos, and Dionant shouted, "Everyone calm down! We are going to work through this! I want all of the Lieutenants to come here!" Within a few moments all four of the Lieutenants were assembled alongside himself and Dagger.

"Alright. Tell me what each one of you wants for yourself and for your clones."

Lieutenant Mako spoke first, "We wish to continue with you, sir." Dionant nodded and looked to Lieutenant Flak.

"We wish for independence, from you and from the Republic. No offense, sir." The Lieutenant seemed somewhat nervous about exactly what he was saying to his superior officer, but he said it anyway. Dionant nodded again and looked to the two remaining Lieutenants, Jet and Fox.

Lieutenant Jet stepped forward, and moved one hand to his blaster carbine. "We will return to the Republic and apprehend you as the criminal you have become." Lieutenant Fox had his hand over his weapon, as did many of the clones in the crowd behind them.

It seemed that a fourth of the clones wished to stay with Dionant, a fourth wished to simply be independent and move on, and that half wished to return to the Republic. "But, Lieutenant Jet, Lieutenant Fox, if you do return to the Republic then within the week a task force will be sent here and we will be wiped out. You would betray the 93rd like that? Your own brothers?"

Lieutenant Jet burst out, "Don't try to turn us against ourselves! We're servants of the Republic and you are a danger to it. You and every clone here are a danger to the Republic which we have sworn to protect." Jet reached for his blaster, grabbing it and firing a shot towards Dionant, who dove away just in time. The bolt flew past and slammed into an unsuspecting trooper, killing him.

Within seconds massive amounts of blaster fire were flying back and forth between the groups, and Dionant and Dagger made a run for the tree line. A few meters short of the protection offered by the dense foliage Dagger stopped running and hopped up onto a large rock. Cupping his hands he shouted over the din of battle and the noise of blasters, "Stop! We are brothers, not animals! Why are we killing each other?!"

Slowly the blaster fire ceased and the smoke cleared for a moment. Dozens of clones had already been caught in the deadly cross fire that had turned the clearing into a brutal killing zone. "Those who want to go, then go! If you want to stay then stay! No more killing!"

The various groups either shambled away, shamed from killing their brothers, or began to prepare the fallen for burial. It had been a brutal fight, but it had been short. Too much longer and barely any would have survived it.

It now seemed that Dionant had a new set of problems to deal with, especially once the clones reached the Republic and reported everything back. It could likely be disastrous, even deadly, but Dionant would just have to deal with that when it got there.

And that's where this chapter ends. I hoped y'all liked it. Let me know what you think about it.


	7. Chapter 7

I do not own the Star Wars Universe.

This story is just now starting to take off, but it is taking off. A lot changed last chapter, and I like where this story is going. I hope y'all do too.

To the reviewer: I don't think that the fight was ridiculous. I think it makes sense that a large portion of the clones would want to return to the Republic and that some would want to be independent and also that some would remain with Dionant. I don't think that Dionant would be able to lead all 120 or so clones into a new life of crime against the Republic without a fair amount of dissent and rebellion. But now the rebellion is done and dealt with.

I think I've laid the groundwork for the next few chapters pretty well. Expect some more Jedi and Republic forces while the new, smaller group of people does their thing. This chapter should be about 8k words long and should propel this story up to 40k words. I pretty much started writing this almost immediately after posting the last chapter, so this is pretty quick.

I think I'm going to end up pairing Dionant and Aisha, but I've never written a pairing before. I hope it goes well. Let me know what y'all think about that. I also tried a little bit different style this chapter, giving some more insight to other areas and stuff.

I hope y'all like this story and where it's heading. Leave a review, if you have the time or inclination. Thanks for reading, y'all.

"They'll be here soon. Three days, tops, I'd say." Dagger and Dionant, along with several other clones, were talking.

"I know. We don't want to be here for when they come." Dionant responded. The discussion had been going on for a few minutes now and it had not progressed very far.

Dagger put in his input, "We can't outfight them either. We'll be ountnumbered, outgunned, and we just won't be able to do it."

Agreement was voiced throughout the crowd, it was obvious that something would be needed to be done.

"We still need to get rid of the spice. And we need new equipment for the clones." Dionant said.

Aisha spoke up now, having been quiet and sitting on a stool while the others had been speaking, "My old employer will be coming after me too, or at least sending a group after me."

"So we'll be pressed hard from at least two angles unless we do something pretty quickly."

"We've got ships to get us off world, but with only the small B-7 able to take people it would take at least 24 hours."

Aisha spoke again, "I've got a ship, too. A _Dynamic_-class freighter. It's an antique as this point, but I've done a lot of work to it." A Dynamic class freighter was a very old model, but it was not unusual for starships to be hundreds or thousands of years old and to still be in use, especially in the Outer Rim. Especially among bounty hunters, smugglers, and others, many upgrades or maintenance would be continually done on the starship. Dionant assumed that that was what Aisha had done.

"That would let us be off-world in less than twelve hours time. I think that's what we should do."

Aisha nodded in agreement, and the various clones did as well.

The ex- Captain spoke, "I agree, too. We need to be off this moon and far away, but I think we should salvage here first."

**Chancellor's Office, Coruscant.**

"Supreme Chancellor, a report from a clone Lieutenant, sir."

"I'm busy, can't you see that? Make this quick." The Chancellor was indeed busy, he was sitting at his desk, nearly completely buried by dataslates, messages, reports, and dozens of other important missives that demanded his attention. He was heavily occupied by his position as Chancellor currently, and it was not unexpected. He was leading both sides of a war, albeitly secretly.

"It's a Lieutenant from the 93rd Legion, sir. The one sent to the Outer Rim a few weeks ago."

The Chancellor looked up from the datapad he had been reading, slowly moving his eyes to meet the eyes of the clone in front of him.

"The 93rd? Ah, yes. Sit, Lieutenant, and tell me your report." The Lieutenant saluted and sat in one of the large chairs inside the Chancellor's office.

"It's the Jedi General who led us, sir. He's gone rogue and has taken a group of clones with him. He hates the Republic and wants to see it fall."

The Chancellor nodded for the clone to continue. It was disconcerting to him that anyone at all had survived the testing of the Separatist superweapon, but that simply meant that it needed some more work. It would be a major weapon against the strong Army of the Republic that the clones and their armament made up.

"He's out in the Tharin System on a small moon. He's gathering a support base."

"He will be dealt with, Lieutenant. Have you informed the Jedi Council of this treachery?"

"No, sir. I was shuttled straight here, from the front lines where my clones still remain."

"Thank you for the report. I must attend a meeting now, I will see to it that you are accommodated for while you are here. I do request that you inform the Council, but not after some rest, Lieutenant."

The Lieutenant stood, recognizing the clear dismissal, and saluted the Chancellor. He walked out of the room with his head held high and shoulders held square, determined to look his best in front of the supreme leader of the Republic.

Once the clone was gone and the Chancellor could sense that he was a decent distance away he spoke, "Make sure he never reports to the Council. I don't care how it happens, just make sure he never reaches the Temple."

**Allen Street, Coruscant.**

Lieutenant Jet had given his report to the Chancellor just a few hours before and was now on his way to the Jedi Temple to give his report. He had decided not to comm ahead and inform them, but as he thought about it now he could not remember why he had decided not to.

It was odd for Jet to be here on Coruscant, the very heart of what he had been engineered and bred to protect. He had never been here before, despite having such vigor and readiness inside his heart to die for the Republic. Coruscant was a massive city, the entire planet, and it was a bustling and crazy place. Hundreds of airspeeders darted and buzzed all around the airlanes, some larger, some smaller, some carrying cargo or freight of some sort, some zipping around in a flashy manner. On the street too hundreds of people were flocking and moving in large masses made of every sort of alien or species imaginable.

Jet was nearly overwhelmed with the sheer amount of people. He had been around large groups during his creation on Kamino, but this was entirely different. The entire planet was buzzing with life, the constant cacophony of traffic and horns, shouts and yells from the streets, and the hum of machinery that was always present. And this was just one of the top levels. Jet had no idea how far down the city went, but he was sure it was hundreds of levels. It was insane to think about that so many people lived in one massive city. It was almost too much for the clone Lieutenant to take in at once.

Lieutenant Jet was so immersed in the hustle and bustle of everything around him that he nearly did not notice the man sneaking up on him. An alien, blue skinned, and humanoid, but not of a race that Lieutenant Jet recognized. He had slowly approached and had surprised Jet by shoving him into an alleyway and levelling a blaster pistol at his face.

"Are you Lieutenant Jet?" The alien demanded, the blaster still held ready. Jet did not make any sudden movements or even acknowledge the pistol aimed at his face. He simply stood in a crouched over, ready stance.

"Who wants to know?"

"Doesn't matter. Say bye." And with that the blue skinned alien squeezed the trigger, sending a volley of blaster bolts into the clones chest, leaving the body in the alleyway, blaster burns and melted armor steaming slightly. The alien pocketed the pistol and slipped out of the alleyway, moving back into the crowded mass seamlessly. Within minutes he had boarded an airpseeder and was nearly a mile away from the scene.

Lieutenant Jet struggled hard to squeeze in and out a few more breaths, thinking about everything that had happened. He had been alive for years, the vast majority of it spent on Kamino, but the past few months had been by far the most eventful. Training had been tough, especially for a command rank of Lieutenant, but he had prevailed and had bonded with his soldiers immensely. Those soldiers had been the very same that had died in the sands of Geonosis and in the cold depths of the Outer Rim. It was only now, days later, that he realized that he had led his comrades, his brothers, to shoot and kill their own brothers as they had escaped and left Dionant and the other clones. It hurt him now, hurt him deeply.

His vision fading to black as the last moments of his life flashed before him all that Lieutenant Jet could feel was a sudden and burning anger. This was no mugging turned homicide. This had been an assassination, brutal and gangland style. And as his eyes closed completely he knew that he should have gone to the Jedi High Council before ever going to the Chancellor. It had been a mistake. A fatal mistake.

**Plethea, Old Clone Headquarters.**

"Watch those boxes!" Dionant shouted to one of the clone troopers as he supervised the loading of supplies onto the two freighters. As much as possible had been salvaged from the base, but it had been a very hasty operation. It had only been six hours since the majority of the clones had left, either to find their own way in the galaxy at large or to return to the Republic.

Only about thirty or so, three squads worth, of clones had stayed on board with following Dionants lead, which had been somewhat disheartening in the beginning but Dionant was realizing it was for the best. It would be easier to train, conceal, control, and utilize a smaller group for the time being.

Aisha was also directing and helping to fill the cargo hold of her _Dynamic- class_ freighter, and progress was being made steadily. It would only be a few more hours until they were all off-world and hidden somewhere.

Aisha walked up to where Dionant was supervising, her armor had been discarded and packed and a thin sheen of sweat was visible from the exertion of moving the crates and cargo.

She spoke first, "Where are we going to go? We can't stay here, and it's not safe in any sector near this one."

Dionant nodded. "I was hoping that you would know a place we could be safe, a place to hide for a while. Somewhere the Republic can't reach and the Jedi can't sense."

Aisha sat down on a crate and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "So it sounds like it's Nar Shaddaa you want. Billions of people, so far into the Outer Rim and immersed in crime that neither the Jedi nor the Republic can reach you. A haven for all the down beaten and scum of the galaxy. The Smuggler's Moon, they call it."

"The Smuggler's Moon, huh? And we'll be able to hide 30 soldiers, and ourselves there?"

"You could hide the whole Army there and the Jedi would never find it."

"Then to Nar Shaddaa we go." As he said this Dionant rose, along with Aisha, and they both moved the remaining boxes into the two they finished the job they gathered the clones around and told them the plan. It was straightforward and easy. They would all go to Nar Shaddaa, and from there they would find lodging and a spot to hide for a few days. They would reconvene and regroup once they were at that point.

"Board up on the B-7 and the Dynamic! I want all of the starships to get into orbit and wait for me there. I'll launch up in the Eta-2 once I'm done leaving a little surprise for the Republic here." The group of clones and Aisha standing in front of him nodded their assent.

Within minutes the hum and whine of starship engines were disappearing into the distance and Dionant was hard at work. He was using his basic knowledge, some simple intuition, and a bit of the Force to guide him in his work. He was rigging several thermal detonators at key points that the Force was telling him could cause a collapse in the cave system if a large enough blast went off. Wiring the generator, which had been much too large and in place to move in a timely manner, to over exert itself and explode exactly as the thermal detonators would explode. With any luck the explosives would not go off until the Republic, or even criminals, were rather deep into the cave system. Dionant did not know if the Republic would reach the moon first or if the criminal ex- employers of Aisha would. But it did not matter, whoever was the first to reach deep enough into the cave system would trigger the explosives and have a very bad time.

**Nar Shaddaa**

Nar Shaddaa was a dirty place. That was the most apt description that Dionant could come up with. They had only been on-world for several hours, but that had been enough for Dionant to form an opinion of the place. So far the group had managed to nearly get involved in two firefights with locals, and had nearly been caught in the crossfire of another firefight.

Aisha had led the group, consisting of Dionant, and the thirty or so clones (who were now all wearing plain clothes and had packed away their armor and equipment, except for a few hidden blasters and weapons). Their ships had all been docked and hidden in a safe and secure spaceport that would ask no questions and would keep the ships safe.

The group was now hidden away deep in the underbelly of Nar Shaddaa where they could lay low for a few days and then regroup from there. The spice was still an issue, but Dionant was confident that on such a large world so heavily infested with criminal activities that it would not be a large problem to sell that much spice.

Dionant chuckled for a moment as he felt a deep disturbance in the Force, something planets away. He immediately felt bad afterwards, he had laughed as he had received what was essentially a report that the explosives had been triggered. He had no way to tell if it was Republic or criminals who had been caught in the blast and cave-in, or if anyone at all had been caught in the cave in. But it had taken lives, and even though he had distanced himself from the Jedi it was still unnerving for him to kill. But sometimes it was what was demanded of him, even if it was to just cover their tracks or hide their presence. It was soon becoming less of an issue for him, however, and it was becoming easier and easier to kill.

Only time would tell if the Republic or the ex-employers of Aisha had managed to track down Dionant and his little entourage, but Dionant would be ready if anything hostile came their way. He was sure of that.

The war was ongoing, battles and fires raging across the galaxy. Everyday saw more and more systems switch hands and control, and it was difficult to maintain a balance. Many systems joined the Separatist Alliance as the movement gained power and got momentum behind it. The Republic was strong, however, and would not yield to the Separatists so easily. The Jedi Order was stretched thin as paper as they tried to add another role onto their already full plate. They were now acting as generals for the Grand Army of the Republic, in addition to maintaining their peacekeeping roles.

All across the galaxy the armored boots of the clones marched in rank and file or charged into the chaos of battle. And opposite them massive armies of droids were being constructed, their metallic march could also be heard throughout the galaxy as they conquered or convinced system after system to join them.

Thousands died everyday for their own cause, and it was difficult and murky to decipher which side was right and which side was wrong when so much pain and so much death was present in the galaxy.

All of this weighed heavily on the mind of the Jedi Master Jehosh as he and two Jedi Knights were leading a clone strike force to check out the small moon of Plethea. The Council had sent him, having been informed by the Chancellor, of the rogue ex- Jedi and group of clones that had set up base on this moon. The Chancellor had reported that the ex- Jedi, Dionant Janan, had led multiple raids or strikes to steal cargo and freight. The man was essentially a pirate now, which made him an enemy of the law and an enemy of the Republic.

Touching down on the heavily forested moon exactly where the scanners had come up with some results, the Jedi Master and his troops disembarked carefully. The scanner had reported a ship, inactive and shut off, and a group of beings inside the cave, but not very deep.

Within minutes the clones and Jedi had ran into trouble, a group of people, obviously not clones, had opened fire on them from inside the deeper sections of the cave. A few clones had gone down immediately, but the trained soldiers had easily acted accordingly and within moments the attackers were on the run, fleeing deeper into the cave. Something felt off to Jehosh as he pursued the attackers with the clones, but he could not tell what exactly felt wrong through the Force.

A rather small explosion went off somewhere deeper in the cave system. Within seconds another blast went off, followed by another, and another. The explosions got larger, louder, and closer as they went on. A few seconds more went by, and a deep rumbling rolled all the way through the cave system. Deafening crashes echoed, the crashing and shattering of rock bouncing off of the walls, as massive chunks of rock fell down. Dozens of beings were crushed instantly, some clones and some the group that had attacked the clones. The three Jedi had had a second of premonition and had been able to jump, dodge, and avoid the first wave of falling rocks.

The three Jedi took off in a sprint, using the Force to try and sense the falling rocks and find a safe path. One of the Knights was crushed utterly when he misstepped and faltered. Master Jehosh dodged and ran, feeling the life forces of the clones and people behind him fading and leaving their bodies. Sensing a rock about to fall in his path he adjusted and used the Force to propel himself even faster, diving out of the cave at the last moment. He could sense the other Jedi Knight nearly right behind him as he himself was crushed, leaving Master Jehosh as the sole survivor of the booby trapped cave. Standing up just as what felt like the entire moon shook and shivered the entrance to the cave system collapsed completely, effectively sealing off the tunnels and cave system.

Sighing bitterly as he realized no one could have survived, and even if he did feel any sign of anyone having survived that it would be impossible for him to safely retrieve them. The mission had been a complete failure and a huge waste of resources and lives that could have benefitted the Order or the Republic elsewhere. Staggering back to where they had set the ship down and trying to raise the pilots on the comms as his ears rang from the deafening explosions and crashes, Jehosh bitterly swore revenge against whoever had laid the trap.

In a few hours the ship was back offworld, now much quieter and emptier than it had been when it was deployed, but it was steaming its way back to Republic territory, determined to inform the Council of what had transpired. They would need to know immediately.

**High Council Chamber, Jedi Temple, Coruscant**

The Jedi High Council was meeting, discussing exactly what action to take against Dionant, who had officially gone rogue. He had, assumedly, been responsible for the deaths of two Jedi Knights and many clones. Jedi Master Jehosh had returned and was giving a report to the Council.

"This is disturbing news. I had assumed Janan had died already."

"As did I."

Jehosh spoke again, "He is responsible for the death of two Jedi Knights. One of them was my ex- Padawan. I request the authority and the resources to track down and bring Janan to justice."

"Close to this you are. Too attached in spirit?" Yoda asked.

"I realize that, Master Yoda. I can handle this assignment."

Mace Windu spoke, " I think you can handle this. We want Janan brought in for justice. Do what must be done to bring him in."

Master Jehosh nodded and let his hand fall to rest on the large hilt of his double-bladed lightsaber that was clipped to his hip. It was an unusual weapon for a Jedi to use, but it was what Jehosh preferred, and he was well suited for it in combat. He was deadly and precise, and had fire in his heart despite how much he tried to let it go.

Within the week Master Jehosh had concluded a few smaller, more local, missions for the Order and had been put into command of a small task force and had been dispatched to bring Dionant Janan back to the Jedi Order or to neutralize any threat to the Order or the Republic if he could not be reformed.

**Nar Shaddaa**

Black boots clanged against a metal catwalk as Dionant scrambled for his lightsaber. Looking up at his attacker it was unlike anything he had ever seen. The black boots led up to a completely black, armored, outfit that was headed by an intimidating black mask and rebreather fitting. The distinct hum of a lightsaber being ignited followed by an eerie red glow illuminating the dark corridor Dionant finally managed to grab his own lighsaber and ignite it's golden blade. Dionant raised it to parry the red lightsaber as it swung towards him. A flash of sparks bounced off as the two blades collided, red meeting gold. A flurry of blows were blocked or parried back and forth between the two combatants as Dionant scrambled to gain some footing on the teetering catwalk.

The duel was intense but short, Dionant was proven to be outmatched. In just a few short minutes he was sweaty and exhausted and his next parry came a second too late. The red blade of the masked and armored combatant swung down to cleave his head from his shoulders when he awoke, cold sweat drenching his night shirt and a yell escaping his mouth. It was only a moment before Aisha had entered the room, blaster pistol drawn and at the ready. A few clones, all still wearing their regular clothing, busted in as well.

Dionant spoke as he looked around the room, everyone there had obviously heard him yell from the nightmare/ vision he had had, "Something's wrong in the Force. I had a vision, but it was nothing I recognized. Something sinister is coming to the galaxy, though."

The clones all left, all still on alert from being woken up in the middle of the night. Dagger lingered for a moment, making eye contact with Dionant to assure he was alright. Dagger nodded as he exited, leaving behind only Aisha. She set down her blaster pistol and sat, beginning to speak, "What did you see?"

"A man, wearing black armor and a black helmet or mask. He was a Sith, but the Sith haven't been around for years."

"How could you tell?" Aisha asked, curious about the Sith. From her criminal lifestyle she knew a basic history of the galaxy, including the Sith and Jedi, something that was not exactly common knowledge.

"Evil. He felt evil. Like nothing I've felt since Geonosis, and even then not like I felt in the vision."

Aisha 'hmm'ed' in response. The two conversed and spoke in his room for several more hours, switching and varying the topics of conversation, but Dionant found it pleasant. His life lately, and really always, had been devoid of personal contact or attachment. He was not worried yet, but could easily see himself forming an attachment to Aisha, which could lead to problems in the future.

Dionant was not sure if the vision was a vision of what was to come, but he expected that it was. It seemed like he was an older man, slower moving with age, and had been rather easily bested by the intimidating and armored Sith. But now he was aware and he could take moves to circumvent this future. But, as always, when someone received a vision and took moves to avoid it coming to pass it could indirectly facilitate the exact thing the person was hoping to avoid. Dionant would just have to stay careful and continue a regimen of meditation that would keep him in-tune with the Force.

It had been three days since the clones, Dionant, and Aisha had fled to Nar Shaddaa, seeking a safe place to hide from the Republic. Aisha had managed to sell the massive amount of spice to a single buyer, who had paid a hefty, but discounted, sum for the total spice.

The credits had gone a long way with securing secrecy and discretion at the spaceport where their ships were being stored. Dagger, whom the clones had all sworn loyalty to, Aisha, and Dionant were discussing what to do next.

"What do we do now? If we stay here we'll be lost in the crowd. The Republic would never find us." This was Dagger speaking.

Aisha spoke up, "There's work here too, or near here at least. I might have a job lined up for us now."

Dionant took this in. He was in charge, essentially, of the well being and care of the group. It would be a heavy decision to decide to base on Nar Shaddaa or to find another planet that would suit their needs.

"I don't like it here. Sure there's plenty of room to go undetected and build our forces, but could we do that unimpeded? I'm sure the local crime lords won't take too kindly to us breaking in on their action.

Aisha nodded in agreement. Dagger did as well.

"We could find another Outer Rim planet, settle our base there like we did on Plethea. But we'll need more credits."

Aisha said, "We have about 10,000 now, after all the expenses." The main expenses had been bribes, storing and hiding the ships safely, food and supplies to recoup what had been left behind on Plethea, and the clones had each been given a significant portion of credits as their personal income. All together it had taken a very large portion of their profit from the spice sale.

"But what would 10,000 get us when we need hundreds of thousands? Maybe millions?"

No one seemed to know the answer. Dionant spoke again, "Well where could we go? We need to stay in the Outer Rim."

It seemed that everyone agreed. Dagger spoke, shifting slightly in his new outfit. "Let's take it to a vote. Stay or go, just us three."

It seemed like a good idea, and Dionant knew that it would be an important issue to keep the clones on his side if he wished to build up a power base.

"Go."

"Stay."

"Go."

The vote had gone how Dionant had wanted, and only Aisha had wished to stay. Dionant was confident that she would stay on with the little outfit, however, and that she would travel to wherever they decided to go.

"We can maintain a base or presence here, once we are big enough. Would that be good?"

Aisha nodded, happy with the concession. No doubt she would wish to head that presence, she seemed to really enjoy the bustle and business of Nar Shaddaa, even if it was a criminal cesspool to most of the galaxy.

"But where?" And the question was brought up again. It launched the three into a long, intense discussion about their next move. Within a few hours Dionant had had enough. Dismissing himself from the conversation and leaving their small hideout, which had become very cramped over the past few days, Dionant set off on a walk around the street.

Nar Shaddaa reminded him heavily of Coruscant, with it's massive hustle and crowds. Airspeeders darted back and forth above his head, with no real semblance of order or control like was present on Coruscant. On Coruscant the airspeeders were controlled in airlanes of traffic, but that was not so here on Nar Shaddaa. The crowds were the same, however. On Nar Shaddaa and Coruscant the never ending stream of people and aliens and droids was almost overwhelming for Dionant, who felt each of their presences in the Force. It was like a sea of emotions, thoughts, and trails that each pulled or pushed him through the Force.

Joining the crowd and walking, wondering exactly what time it was. The neon lights and flashing advertisements provided lighting, but the level above blocked out all natural light. They were on a relatively lower level of Nar Shaddaa, it was easier to hide that way.

Among the sea of feelings and presences throughout the Force that were flooding Dionant every second one was distinct. It was distinct and was definitely related to the presence he had felt in his vision, if not as a person then as a being. This was the feeling of pure evil, or the Dark side of the Force that he had felt in his vision. It was what he was feeling now.

A few meters behind him, lost in the crowd despite his prying eyes and wary glances Dionant could sense the Darkness. And he was sure that his presence in the Force was like a beacon to any Force sensitive that was well trained enough to know to look for it. He had not been trying to hide it, instead relying on the massive amount of people on Nar Shaddaa to mask it for him. It was easier for him that way.

Walking farther and farther away from the hideout where Aisha and the clones were still hiding Dionant took several turns and went down side streets. He made sure to stay hidden in a large crowd of passing beings, never exposing himself too much. He still could not get an accurate fix on who was following him, but he could sense the sheer danger.

Breathing in deeply as he brought his entire essence into himself, hiding himself and his Force presence totally, Dionant ducked into a deserted alley between two brightly lit and advertised bars. Carefully hiding himself in the shadows of the alley Dionant held his lightsaber in his hand, ready to ignite and leap into combat at a moment's notice.

A moment later a large man, a human who was broad shouldered and heavily muscled, tentatively stepped into the alley, looking around. Dionant could tell that the danger and darkness was radiating from this man. He was obviously dangerous, and from what Dionant could sense as he got closer that the man had traces of pure evil, traces of Sith teachings, that were evident in his presence.

The man spoke, his voice deep and gruff. "I know you're here, Jedi. Brave of you to come here to Nar Shaddaa." The man held one hand inside of his dark set of robes, assumedly on a weapon or lightsaber, Dionant was sure.

"I have left the Order." As he spoke the man turned, whipping his body around to be facing where the voice had come from. Dionant saw a flash of metal reflect off of a beam of light from the street, and knew that the man was readying his lightsaber.

"Left the Order? I've heard that one before." The man ignited his lightsaber, the glowing red lightsaber casting an eerie light in the alley. Dionant ignited his own, intermingling the red with gold, and bringing balance to the lighting in the alley. Streams of people and beings continued to flow by the alley entrance, none of them seeming to take notice of what was about to transpire inside the alley.

The two circled each other, the situation becoming more and more tense as each moment went by. "I have left the Order. They sent me to die along with my men."

"Hmm. I can feel the hate inside you. My Master would like to get his hands on you."

"Your Master? So you are Sith."

The man gave a barking laugh, his laugh matching his voice in gruffness, "Sith? No. But I can't risk my Master replacing me with you. So you'll have to die." And with that the man stabbed his lightsaber forward with speed and ferocity. Dionant leapt to the side and dodged the blow. The man swung wide, and the blow was blocked.

The two men danced inside the alley, the cramped space making the combat even more difficult. Sparks fell when the two blades clashed, and the Force shook as each man tried to use it to gain the upperhand. Soon enough the two had fought their way back to the far end of the alley, glowing slices and marks etched into the walls and floor of the alley. The back wall of the alley took multiple blows and soon the dark side fueled man pushed the wall down with the Force. The area opened into a warehouse of some sort, and the two continued their fight. It was a quick and intense matter, just like any duel between lightsaber wielding Force-users.

Boxes and crates were slashed as the two fought their way through the warehouse. The duel was nearly silent, except for the occasional grunt of exertion or the whoosh of lightsabers swinging in mid air. The two men were beginning to tire and wear out, it was a very demanding fight, and it was relatively equally matched.

Gold met red for a final clash as Dionant used the Force to send the man flying, catching him unaware, and made a break for the door of the warehouse. Hitting the door at speed and sprinting out into the street as he de-ignited his lightsaber Dionant tried his best to mask his presence again and slip into the crowd unnoticed. Walking briskly into the crowd and following its ebb and flow Dionant did his best to gain some ground and put some distance in between him and the man he could only assume was a cultist or follower of some dark side oriented cult.

Sensing the man's presence as he exited the warehouse Dionant gave a sigh of relief. He was already two streets away, going the opposite direction. He now felt safe, if not majorly exhausted and now lost. He could attempt to sense out where Aisha and Dagger were, he was certainly familiar enough with each of their presences in the Force. But doing that would expose him to the man who might sense him.

He could not really risk using the Force now, even in a tiny manner, in case the man was still sensing out and trying to find him. He had tracked him down once and would definitely be able to do so again. It was not worth the risk, and that was besides the fact that Dionant was exhausted after his fight. A duel such as that always took a lot out of an individual, and while he would recover it would take time. And thankfully he had been able to buy himself some time with his quick escape and concealment of his Force presence.

Stumbling as he did his best to walk straight and not give out any air of weakness Dionant rejoined the flow of people in the street. He knew that if he showed weakness or vulnerability here in the underworld of Nar Shaddaa that it was unlikely that he would ever leave this planet. Cursing as he realized that he had not brought any sort of comms equipment with him when he had left the hideout Dionant decided that he would do his best to conceal himself and recover for now and that he would return to Dagger, Aisha, and the clones once he had deemed it was safe.

Going up a few levels in the neverending cityscape that stretched before him Dionant put much distance between himself and where the man had accosted him. Dionant crossed streets and alleys, and did not stop frequently. Stopping only twice for a small meal and quick rest Dionant kept on the move. He was tired and with every moment he grew even more weary.

He eventually became too tired to continue and found himself handing over a handful of credits for a nights stay in what seemed like the least seediest cantina/ inn he could find. It was still a dirty and dingy place, but it was nondescript and seemed somewhat secure.

**Collapsed Cave System, Plethea.**

Jedi Master Jehosh had returned to the cave system that had claimed the lives of two Jedi Knights, one of whom was his old Padawan learner, and over thirty clone troopers in a deadly booby trapped series of explosions and blasts.

He and his new clone task force, again thirty or so clones, had been slowly excavating the cave system. Progress was slow even despite the liberal usage of the Force to levitate the larger boulders and the use of heavy machinery. It had taken a day or so, but Jehosh and the clones had broken through the wall of collapsed rock and had opened a small passage that a single person could crawl through at a time.

Doing exactly that was what had lead to their current situation. The Jedi master, a tall- blue skinned Chiss, was looking over two mech-clones as they removed the head of a droid that had been trapped and nearly completely flattened in the rock fall. It was a tricky process. Even the slightest slip of the hand could mean the complete destruction of any useful data from the droid's recorders and computer unit. The mech clones worked hard and diligently, and as they finished their job, handing off the recorder system to Master Jehosh the two went back to work inspecting the other computers and machinery that were not completely destroyed.

Squeezing his way back through the small tunnel and going back to the ship Master Jehosh began to analyze the data left on the recorder system. Soon enough it became obvious that most of the data was corrupted, the system had after all been damaged heavily in the explosions and falling rocks. But a small segment of recording was available, and according to the analyzation software

A crackling, static-filled, audio recording began to play as Jehosh fiddled with his instruments and tools.

"... Nar Shaddaa?..." The recording soon cut off and went to complete static. It seemed that the audio recording system from the mining droid had only yielded those two words. But those two words were enough for a scorned Jedi Master who was bent on revenge. And revenge he would have.

Breathing in and remembering the teachings of the Order, Master Jehosh decided to hold off on leaving immediately for Nar Shaddaa and to find the local leader and local town. He would canvass the area and get as much information as possible.

The old Gran settled into his seat across from the Jedi Master.

"So this man," A rotating hologram of Dionant Janan spun from the handheld device, "was here? And he had clones with him?"

The Gran nodded. "He sure did. Lots of them too, at first."

"So some left?"

"Most left. I only checked up once or twice. But he definitely had less clones."

Master Jehosh 'hmm'ed' a response. The Gran did not seem perturbed by the Master Jedi who was questioning him, nor did he seem perturbed by any of the questions or the intensity that was obvious in the Chiss.

"I would only collect a bit of rent, for staying on the moon. The war hasn't followed you here, has it?"

The Chiss Jedi rose as he answered the old Gran's question. "No. Not yet, anyways."

The Chiss strode out of the office, his lightsaber at his side, and rejoined the clone captain waiting outside for him. He and his clones had been scouring the nearby Karthi Spaceport, seeking any information on Dionant and his clones.

"General, we've had a couple reports from the spaceport. One about a murder and another about a spaceship that apparently changed ownership shortly after this murder."

So Dionant had murdered someone? If so, then he had truly given up on the Jedi Order and its teachings.

"Let's move out then, Captain. We have a lot to do."

**Hideout, Nar Shaddaa. (One day after man attacked Dionant).**

Dionant had returned to the hideout a few hours prior, having been nearly a full day full of worry and concern for Dionant from Aisha and Dagger. But he had returned and was fine, if a little worse for wear.

He had been sleeping and recovering when a call had come through the comms system. Rolling out of his small and cramped camp cot and answering the comms Dionant did his best to be presentable. But it turned out he did not need to as the comm was from Drax, the slicer.

"Dionant? This is Drax. I just heard something from Kenth that I need you to confirm."

"Yes?" Dionant did not know exactly what this was about, but had an idea or two.

"Kenth says there's some blue skinned Jedi poking around Karthi. Looking for a Dionant Janan, wanted for deserting the Order and murder."

"And why does this matter to you, Drax? Whoever it is won't find me."

"They're coming to Nar Shaddaa next."

"Shit." Dionant sighed as he realized that the booby trap must have not done it's job completely and somehow the Order had been able to link him to Nar Shaddaa.

Dionant spoke again, "Okay, Drax. I'll wire some credits for this when I can. We'll be off-world soon."

The comms cut off and Dionant finished getting ready, also packing what belonged to him as he dressed. He left his tiny quarters and strolled into the largest room in the hideout, seeing Aisha, Dagger, and the Lieutenant all standing there talking.

"We've got to get off-world. And soon."

"Why?" Aisha asked. Dionant had explained everything that had happened between him and the mysterious man who had attacked him, but when Dionant had explained it he had not made a huge fuss over it and Aisha assumed that this was a separate issue.

"Some Jedi is coming, and he's bringing some clones with him."

"There's no way they'll find us here." This was the Lieutenant speaking.

Dagger spoke his mind, "We already agreed to leave Nar Shaddaa. This just accelerates the schedule a bit."

"True. How soon can we be packed and off-world?" Dionant asked.

"Three hours, minimum."

"That works. I want the pilots to come with me, we're going to go prep the ships for take off. Everyone else prepare to leave. We'll find another place to go."

And with that everyone broke up, doing each of their own jobs. They had been on the run for the past week or so, and it now seemed like they would be spending at least another week on the run.

End of Chapter 7

So that was a long chapter. The longest yet for this story, and I think my second longest ever. A lot happened, and a lot changed. I set up a lot in this chapter. I'll be resolving some of the issues in the next couple of chapters, which is good.

I worked hard on this and I would certainly appreciate a review or comment on the story. I've pretty much put my most visible and known story on hiatus to pursue this one, so it would be nice to receive some feedback.

As I had hoped, finishing this chapter will send me into the 40K word bracket, which should bump up the views and comments, hopefully.

I introduced the very beginning of a pairing between Aisha the bounty hunter and Dionant the ex- Jedi in this chapter. I've never done a pairing before of any sort so this is definitely uncharted territory for me.

I hope y'all like the story and keep reading. I'll keep writing it either way.


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